There were many Davaoeños, including some of my friends, who asked why the Iglesia ni Cristo prayer rally last January 13 had to be held at San Pedro and disrupt the lives of “ordinary citizens” in such a major way on a Monday, of all days.
I honestly do not understand the question and my reply to that is another question, “Why not?”
San Pedro is Davao City’s center stage where every significant event in the life of the city and its people unfolds.
It is the seat of religious and political power where the legislative and executive branches of the local government form a right triangle with the center of the Archdiocese of Davao.
It is home to three major parks — the Osmeña Park (used to be Plaza de Oyanguren), the Rizal Park, and the Quezon Park. These parks host public debates, magic shows, carnivals, street chess battles, open air massages and manicures, children’s playgrounds, and notary publics.
It is the main venue of all our major festivals and celebrations. Every Davaoeño has, at one time or another, paraded along San Pedro Street for Araw ng Dabaw and danced the “indak-indak” during Kadayawan sa Dabaw Festival.
I remember the protest marches in my high school and college days that always ended up at Rizal Park in San Pedro. The confettis on Yellow Fridays in the 1980s were always more yellow and more concentrated in San Pedro. The chants were always louder as marchers approach San Pedro. The legendary Davao general strikes (Welgang Bayan) converge in San Pedro. Konsumo Dabaw protests were in San Pedro.
One Billion Rising to stop all forms of violence against women were held in San Pedro. Showcasing children’s talents from all the city’s barangays happen in San Pedro. Launching major programs and campaigns in Davao City were always done in San Pedro. So are introducing politicians and beauty queens and star athletes to the whole community.
We hold both our political protest rallies and our religious fellowships in San Pedro. We have our free concerts and street food fiestas in San Pedro. We have our material possessions snatched and our souls saved in San Pedro. We celebrate life and get terrorized and bombed in San Pedro. Photojournalists take their “slice of life” photographs in San Pedro and “Kodakers” earn their slice of bread in San Pedro.
In fact, one significant test of whether your boyfriend or girlfriend is worthy of you is if you can be proud to be seen with him or her walking along San Pedro Street. (“Unya, ma-rampa nimo imong uyab sa San Pedro?”)
In Davao, it’s not really a city-wide major, major event if it does not happen in San Pedro. It is Davao City’s kilometer zero, after all. It is the city’s heart and soul.
For all these reasons and more, the Davao Historical Society (DHS) is working on getting San Pedro declared a heritage site and a cultural center.
Its historical significance in the life of the city is undisputed. The first Davao settlement under native Davao chieftain, Datu Bago, can be found some 350 meters from where the San Pedro Cathedral now stands. It was close to the banks of the Davao River where Bolton Bridge now is. The settlement was burned down when the Spanish forces led by Don Jose Oyanguren succeeded in driving away the forces of Datu Bago on June 29, 1848.
The new Christian settlers, who composed the pioneering families of the city coming from the Caraga region, rebuilt the settlement on the same location and built the first church made of nipa and bamboo in 1848 in honor of San Pedro, the patron saint of Oyanguren’s baptismal parish in Spain.
The Archdiocese of Davao celebrates the fiesta of San Pedro every June 29, the same day of the final battle between Oyanguren and Datu Bago. So every feast of San Pedro, we also mark the defeat of Datu Bago and the successful conquest of Davao by the Spanish colonial government.
What can be more historic than that, right?
Some sectors in the late 1950s and early 1960s wanted to change the name of San Pedro Street and name it after one of our local heroes. But then the big fire broke out that almost wiped out all of downtown Davao and San Pedro Street. They said the fire stopped just before reaching San Pedro Church. Devout Catholic Davaoeños believed it was San Pedro’s way of protesting the proposed change of the street named after him. Since then, nobody attempted to change the name of San Pedro Street again.
San Pedro represents the place of the first Christian settlement and also the place of people’s resistance. It is where we rise and fall and rise again as a community.
So, of course, if we want to make any significant stand, San Pedro is the place to do it.
Now most Davaoeños take San Pedro Street for granted and just treat it as a place to avoid during rush hour and especially during the city’s major community events due to traffic congestion.
So what does it say about us if instead of treating a major rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people in San Pedro as a historic moment in our community life, we see it as an inconvenience that should be moved to an out-of-the-way place where it does not bother us?
Was not that the point of the “show of force” — to show it on our main street and center stage?
That we can still gather many people face to face in San Pedro in the Age of Social Media is an incredible feat. It gives me hope. It means people still care enough to show up and stand up for something.
Even if we may not agree with what they are standing for or like the people showing up and supporting it, they are there participating in community life. Whatever their intentions and motivations are, they have every right to occupy San Pedro.
All Davaoeños have the right to be in San Pedro. It is our collective stage.
