DAVAO CITY—The ongoing Kadayawan sa Dabaw appears to be one of the more successful editions of the harvest festival even if the city government decided to hold back on the grandiosity this year.
Perhaps it is because one of the city’s favorite sons, former mayor Rodrigo Duterte, is now President and has brought on his coat tails a slew of officials from all sectors of government, including the favor-seekers who follow in their wake.
Palace officials said more than half of Duterte’s Cabinet has been here since Thursday to attend the Social Development Summit organized by Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco, who is in charge of 12 key social service agencies.
Aside from Duterte and Evasco, other Cabinet present are Presidential Management Staff chief Christopher Go, Deputy Cabinet Secretary Peter Laviña, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.
But despite the surge of official and foreign visitors, city officials are trying to focus on the original purpose of the festival which was conceived in the 1970s by Manobo datu Joseph Sibug who later represented cultural minorities as a congressman.
“We hope to give meaning to the celebration by looking at the lives of our brothers and sisters, lumad and Muslim. This celebration is about them and will be for them,” said Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte.
The vice mayor stressed that the lumad and the Muslims are “the heart and the soul” of Kadayawan although Davaoeños do have a lot to be thankful for this year.
In fact, said city information officer Jefry Tupas, the last-day Pumulak sa Kadayawan on Sunday will gather the biggest number of participants.
“The floral festival only gathered floats in past years,” Tupas said, adding 50 floats will be joining the competition and non-competition categories this year, plus 11 tribal groups and a dozen drum-and-bugle groups.
But one of the country’s grandest festivals did not become what it is today overnight and, just like the indigenous waling-waling (Vanda sanderiana), went through some dry seasons.
Unknown to many, Kadayawan is not originally a Davao City festival and originated from the Ubo-Manobo tribal festival “Kalibongan” in nearby Kidapawan City.
Kalibongan was a festival initiated by the Mindanao Highlanders Association Inc., an organization led by Sibug, a prominent and respected tribal leader in Kidapawan.
Kalibongan was transferred to Davao City after it was renamed the Apo Duwaling festival–a name derived from words “Apo,” “durian” and “waling-waling,” all identified with Davao City.
The first Apo Duwaling was held in 1986 under the leadership of then Mayor Zafiro Respicio and was turned into a spectacle for foreign and domestic tourists.
When Mayor Rodrigo Duterte assumed the mayoral post in 1988, Apo Duwaling Festival was renamed Kadayawan sa Dabaw and was institutionalized as an official celebration every third week of August.
Now on its 31st year, Kadayawan’s pageantry has been dramatically transformed to not only celebrate the colorful and unique culture and tradition of the 11 tribes of the city but also to highlight the life and the plight of the lumad and the Muslims.