DAVAO CITY – Mayor Sara Dutetre-Carpio conferred on Tuesday the Datu Bago Award to seven Dabawenyos who have shown the exemplary contribution to Davao City.
The Datu Bago Award is the highest award bestowed by the city government on Dabawenyos and it is given annually during the founding anniversary of the city which is celebrated on March 16.
“This morning we recognized a special breed of Dabawenyos who not only make or mark in their respective fields but went above and beyond what is expected of them,” Duterte-Carpio said.
The mayor said the city is defined by its people who are the reason for celebrating the Araw ng Dabaw.
“A city at its core is defined by its people and this is the reason why the city is celebrating Araw ng Davao every year as a salute to all Dabawenyos from all walks of life who live with integrity, work with passion, interact with one another in the spirit of respect for the city’s cultural diversity,” she said during the 48th Conferment of Datu Bago Awards at the Royal Mandaya Hotel on Tuesday.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who was once nominated to be a Datu Bago Awardee, turned down the offer.
The President once said, “We named the city’s highest distinction in his honor because we only do not pay proper respects to the old warrior; we re-live his heroism each year as we confer awards to our distinguished citizens.”
Asked if she would accept a Datu Bago Award, Duterte-Carpio said she would not pass all the criteria for an awardee.
During her speech, the mayor admitted she was laughing to herself imagining that if she will be awarded, her citation would be: she went down fighting like Datu Bago most noteworthy of her enemies are two speakers — Speaker Nograles and Speaker Alvarez
The mayor led the conferment of the Datu Bago Award to this year’s awardees namely:
Bro. Carlito Gaspar, author and staunch advocate of peace with extensive peacebuilding efforts through interfaith dialogues and ecumenical involvements in Mindanao;
Norma Javallena, an environmental pioneer and trailblazer and a long-term advocate for the protection of children’s rights;
Belen Laud, a byword in the cooperative world having served on the board of nine cooperatives for different terms and consultation services as an accredited mediator-conciliator, cooperative auditor and lecturer;
Dr. Aland David Mizell, an American social scientist who spent his life in Davao City serving the disadvantaged and the marginalized and established the Minority Care International (MCI) offering many programs beneficial to the marginalized youth;
Ricardo Obenza Jr, an environmentalist, a teacher and an artist and has devoted more than 40 years of his life to ensure a better environment through arts and planting programs for Davao city’s children;
Beethoven Sur, a Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary district director advocating environmental protection and a supporter to education and humanitarian outreach program; and,
Nieto Vito blazed the trail for education for special education and for the scholars of the Japanese government and sports development of the children with special needs.
The new Awardees make up the more than a hundred Datu Bago Awardees from 1969 to 2018.
The awardees are recognized for their outstanding, exemplary and selfless contribution to the growth and development of Davao City and for their invaluable contribution to the preservation of the Dabawenyo culture heritage.
Datu Bago was a warrior who fought the invading Spaniards and hindered them from conquering Davao. He was called “Bawwangin” by the local tribes and, a brave Kagan Chieftain.
In 1839, Davao historians said Datu Bago joined by the Bagobo and Kagan tribes, struck his greatest blow against foreign invaders. He was of a Kagan, Tausug and Maguindanawon ancestry and settled in Bagobo land now known as Davao where he fought long and hard in keeping Davao Gulf free from foreign control. (Lilian C. Mellejor/PNA)
