ALL roads lead this week to one of the oldest towns in the province of Davao Oriental when the 106th Araw ng Cateel gets underway on Wednesday, October 28, with the Pageant Night at the municipal gym wherein a new Mutya ng Cateel will be crowned to take over from reigning mutya, Ma. Rosario Sillada. The gala observance of 106 years of governance (1903-2009) will culminate on Thursday, October 29, with a blockbuster array of activities in various venues featuring a civic parade, competitions like Quiz Bee, literary-musical contest, cultural folk dance, motocross races, basketball tournament, cheer-dance tilt, etc. The theme of the celebration is, “Padayon Sang Pag-Uswag Kanato Kultura; Kinaiyahan Ipasigarbo, Ipalambo!” And that, in a nutshell, is saying a lot. Invited to be the special guest of the occasion was DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno, but he has gone abroad, according to reports. Cateel Mayor Camilo T. Nunez expects the Araw celebration to be a huge success like the many others before it. Nunez, 57, younger brother of the governor, has a colorful career as an undefeated political kingpin since he first entered politics in 1992. In-between three-term stints, he won a seat in the provincial board, before returning as mayor for another three-term period. Cateel is one of the ten municipalities of Davao Oriental, the others being Mati, Caraga, Boston, Baganga, Tarragona, San Isidro, Gov. Generoso, Lupon and Banay-Banay. It first became a settlement in 1650 when the Spanish government established at the site the Fort of San Francisco de Cateel as a defense against Moro marauders who came by sea. Its present name is derived from a variety of bamboo that grew in the area at the time. On October 29, 1903, the Legislative Council of the Moro Province approved Act No. 21 creating the municipalities of Mati, Davao, Baganga, Caraga and Cateel. Cateel today, with a population of close to 30,000 occupying a territory of 54,556.17 hectares, has coconut as its major crop (11,000 hectares), producing 44,000 tons of copra annually. It produces rice on 12,000 has. of irrigable land and 1,000 has. non-irrigable. It produces about 16 tons of corn yearly, aside from abaca, coffee beans, cacao, vegetable-legumes, hot chili and even durian. Cateel boasts of such natural wonders as the Pangitgan Falls, Mabuyong Falls, Tres Marias Falls, and the most famous of them all — Aliwagwag Falls, whose silvery waters cascade down 27 stairway-like levels on their way to the Cateel River and on to the Pacific Ocean. One imaginative individual, upon seeing the falls, described it as a “stairway to heaven”. And there is the chilly waters of Kao Springs as well as caves, too, complete with stalagmites and stalactites. In next year’s elections, some 15,000 registered voters are expected to troop to the polls and, most probably, reelect Nunez as mayor along with his vice mayor, Isidro Castro. In the fluid political atmosphere of the country today, when politicians have been changing parties in preparation for the 2010 polls, Mayor Nunez is expected to go where his sister, the governor, goes. And she’s not saying where. Not just yet, anyway. [Ram Maxey]
