Halloween Treats In Davao City-Part 1

Halloween may be a western tradition but the Dabawenyos are starting to celebrate this albeit more conservatively. The celebration was originally known as Samhain, a Celtic festival which is regarded as their own version of a New Year and coincides with the end of the Gaelic harvest season.

This is actually one of the many pagan festivals that even Christians celebrate in the modern world. While the ancient pagans took advantage of Halloween to to get their supplies for winter, the ancient Gaels believed that this is that time of the year when the living is faced with sickness and other problems caused by the dead. The costumes worn today reflected the same costumes worn in the early days to either mimic or placate the evil spirits.

Today, people consider Halloween to be a family affair with kids getting the most of out the celebration as they go from house to house shouting trick or treats! Here are some of the Halloween celebrations scheduled in Davao City.


Eden Nature Park

Children will get their treats alright with the Harry Potter-inspired Halloween Party at the Eden Nature Park on October 31 at 5:30pm. Wear your favorite Harry Potter character from Harry himself, Hermione, Hagrid or even Dumbledore! The organizers of the event said the kids will be dazzled not only with the games and surprises during the Party. There will also be a price for those who will win the Best in Costume contest. Eden's own magician staff will teach children the art of origami and hopefully they will be able to come up with their own Hedwig owls.

And since Halloween is a time to treat not only the kids but also their families, Eden is offering the following room discounts from October 30 to November 2.

• 20% on rooms
• 20% off on family cottages
• 40% off on the campsite areas

On October 30 to November 2 (Thursday to Sunday), get 40% off on rooms, 20% off on family cottages, and 40% off when you camp out at the resort's various campsite areas.

Day Tour is also available for those who would rather explore the Park during daytime at the following prices.
P420 buffet lunch (adult) inclusive of entrance P280 buffet lunch (child) inclusive of entrance P180 snack (adult) P150 snack (child) P230 Fun at the Park (adult) P200 Fun at the Park (child) includes entrance, plated snack, entry to the fishing village, swimming pool or horseback riding, P325 Skyrider with snack including entrance P250 Tinubdan (adult) P185 Tinubdan (child) includes entrance, packed snack and Tinubdan Tour.

For reservations you can call
Eden Nature Park and Resort
299.1020/296.0791/299.0313
send sms to 0918.930.7590
info@edennaturepark.com.ph

Davao Museum Features Amorsolo Retrospective This October

Kadayawan may be over for this year but you can still celebrate the bountiful harvest thanks to the Amorsolo Retrospective satellite exhibit which will open on October 23 at the Davao Museum's Carlos O. Dominguez Gallery located at the Zonta Building, 113 Agusan Circle, Insular Village Phase I, Lanang, Davao City.

The four month Amorsolo Retrospective exhibit. which opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila last September 26, aims to bring Philippine National Artist Fernando Amorsolo's life and work closer to the Filipino people. The Davao Museum exhibit is 13th of the 20 satellite exhibits all over the country.

The exhibit dubbed as "Celebrating Ginum: A Festival for a Bountiful Harvest" features the Bagobo's pre-planting festival which is being held annually. This should be pretty interesting and Davao's Bagobo community as well as the Dabawenyos as a whole can very well relate to it considering the city's bountiful harvests year in and year out.

You can call the Davao Museum Information Desk for more information on the exhibit at 233-1734 or email them at davaomuseum@yahoo.com. You still have up to January 13, 2009 to take a closer look at Amorsolo's works.

Goodbye E.O. Fuentes

I would have said move on Sir E.O. because I know he wanted his death to be poetic and not melancholy. He was known among the circle of Davao writers as simply E.O. He was my mentor and later on became my friend and confidante.

I had the chance to work with Sir E.O. when I was taken in by Publisher/Writer Willie Rola to edit his business magazine "Dimensions". I was still in college then but he believed in me and trusted me with running the editorial content of his magazine but of course, with the help of our editorial consultant E.O. Fuentes.

He was already an old man then but he was very vibrant and full of life. And he was very unselfish, taking it upon him to mentor me. He always considered me his protege and taught me a lot of things about feature writing. It was my first stint in professional writing (unless you count the once in a blue moon writing experiences I had with then Peryodiko Dabaw and another magazine owned by an advertising man).

I was placed in the company of "wolves", so to speak as they were all experienced writers around me--Sir E.O. and Willie Rola. Thus, I had no choice but to learn and to make the best of whatever writing talent I had.

One of the first criticisms, er---lessons Sir E.O taught me was to make sure that my features ended smoothly. "Do not let your article end abruptly," he would coach me. But no matter how I tried, he kept on pestering me for hours no end that I should make sure my ending was beautiful and that it will always be remembered by my readers.

My experience with Dimensions Magazine was all worth the pain of having to wake up early to cover the Geothermal Plant in Mt. Apo and to stay up late to make sure those articles were written following Sir E.O.'s guidelines. I cannot anymore remember the hundreds of feature stories I wrote for Dimensions, most of them passed the Eagle's eye of Sir. E.O. after several rewrites.

We parted ways since I was taken in by another mentor, Ms. Marietta Siongco of Mindanao Daily Mirror to take care of Mirror's business news. Business news was a never-heard genre then since what was popular in the Davao media was political news. But Sir. E.O. was never far behind and he would always beep me (ha!ha! no SMS messages then) or all me up at Mirror so we an have lunch or just a light snack.

I have always looked forward to those "dates" then since Sir. E.O. always treated me and still critiqued even my news articles. He encouraged me to do more business features at a time when a major reporter of a local tabloid laughed at my article about the business of making salt. She was ignorant about business writing then as she was only exposed to political news. Sir E.O. gave me the courage to move on and to ignore her remarks. And thanks to him, I moved on and left my own mark in the growth of Davao City's business reporting niche no matter how trivial that may be.

He went on to encourage me to write more business features when I was hired by BusinessWorld to be their correspondent for Mindanao. As usual, he did not stop critiquing my work but at the same time there were always words of wisdom behind his criticisms. He also asked me to be part of the FIDI book which he edited.

I haven't had a date with Sir E.O. for quite sometime after I became busy with law school and moved on to another career. However, we always talked on the phone and during those times he would always drop a word or two about maintaining the spontaneity of my stories.

Sir E.O. was a gifted man. He was very kind and his words of wisdom will always be with me.

Davao Doctors Hospital, College In The Midst Of Corporate Bickering

Could the operation of Davao City's premier hospital be disrupted by the ongoing rift between two groups of stockholders? The same question goes for the operation of Davao Doctors College, both of which are being managed by the same corporation?

A media war is going on between the former DDH President Dr. Herminio Villano of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) which is a group identified with new investor Manny Pangilinan and present DDH president Dr. Dominador Cabrera. You would think such corporate take over and controversy can only happen in the books of John Grisham but it is happening right here in Davao City, and will take place on November 8, 2008 during the board's annual stockholders meeting.

Cabrera said the DDH stockholders are not so keen to Villano's bid for the presidency of DDH because "he sold out!". Villano, along with three other shareholders of DDH, consolidated and sold their shares to Pangilinan's MPIC last June but reports indicate that Villano has retained at least 300 shares.

Villano however denied he is eyeing a comeback for the presidency of the DDH and said "It's true that I am running but only for a seat in the board" and only to ensure that no obstructions are faced by the MPIC in the implementation of the financial policies geared towards saving the hospital.

He said the company behind the hospital and the Davao Doctors College has not been managed accordingly. He clarified that it is the company and not the hospital that has been mismanaged. However, he admitted that the College was being run badly and has experienced a drop in the number of enrolleess from 6,500 during his time to the present 3,600.

MPIC is seeking a majority status in the board considering that it will invest P250 million in the hospital from 2008 to 2009.

Cabrera debunked the allegations saying the college may have a low enrollment rate this year but it is still contributing a sizable revenue to the company. He said the reason for the low enrollment is the raising of the entrance exam standards of the school unlike before when even a student with a score of 38 was allowed admission.

Mindanao Talk Show Kicks Off Nov. 19

A Mindanao talk show dubbed as "Talk Mindanao" will be launched on November 19, 2008 on Channels 15 and 28 of Sky Cable Network. The show, which will be aired from 1o p.m. to 11 p.m every Wednesday, will be seen in Davao City, General Santos City, Tagum and Zamboanga City.

The show is a good opportunity for Mindanaoans who want to know about the latest news and issues affecting the island including its economy, peace and order, business and other advocacy.

"We hope to highlight the different opportunities in Mindanao especially in investments," Mindanao Business Council chairman Vicente Lao said. On the other hand, Mindanao Economic Development Council Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana said that aside from providing vital information to businessmen "the show will also give various updates on peace and development to Mindanao's different stakeholders."

The newest talk show in and about Mindanao, which replaced the live interview program Mindanao Business Talk, will be managed jointly by Medco and MinBC.

Davao City's Economy Won't Suffer Even With Economic Crisis-Laviña

Davao City's economy would not suffer despite the global economic crisis being felt by the country today mainly for three reasons:

1.Davao City is an agriculture-based economy and therefore not as exposed to trading fluctuations
2.Davao City is more of an exporter than an importer so it is not highly vulnerable to the fluctuating currency rate
3.Davao City has reached critical mass with 1.4 million consumers

This was the contention of councilor Pete Laviña who chairs the City Council committee on Trade, Commerce and Industry. As evidence of this, he said, new banks have started construction in the city despite the crisis.

Despite this positive outlook the Davao City Council is preparing for the possible influx of Overseas Filipino Workers who might lose their employment abroad and decide to either reduce their remittances to their families in Davao City or return to the city for lack of better options. Councilor Danny Dayanghirang has thus passed a resolution to establish a linkage between the Davao City Cooperative Development Office and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration so that both offices can come up with a program that will benefit OFWs who would opt to return home.

Dabawenyo Wins Lotto Jackpot Worth P131M

If you are one among the hundreds of Dabawenyos betting their hard-earned P20 (or more!) daily to get a crack at the lotto pot then here's one more reason to continue or discontinue with your lotto addiction.

A lucky Dabawenyo won the P131,367,621.60 jackpot prize of the 6/49 lotto game using the combination number 42-12-46-26-49-19. The lucky Dabawenyo paid a measly P140 for his bet and got millions in return.

This can mean that every Dabawenyo's dream of being a millionaire through the lotto is indeed possible. However, luck never shines in you twice so in all probability the next lucky winner will no longer come from this area.