Then and now, Davao River, also known as Bankerohan River, has been an indispensable facet of Davao City’s progress, especially in transport and commerce. Months after the Port of Davao was opened on July 1, 1908, the construction of the 300-yard Santa Ana Pier followed.
The completion of the town’s first commercial wharf, which is now a tourist-oriented jetty, happened in 1909 with the help of members of the Davao Planters Association (DPA). Cost for the project was PhP29,946 when the dollar-peso currency exchange was 1 to 2. Connecting the pier to the town proper was the Beach Road, now Magsaysay Street, which was built at the cost of PhP6,762. Near the dock were warehouses and the Customs House.
The Mindanao Herald, in its Feb. 3, 1909 issue, described the pier under construction:
“This port is located on the Gulf of Davao at the mouth of the Davao River, and is the center of a hemp producing region which is rapidly increasing in importance. It is there that the American planter has found a congenial climate and splendid opportunity to exercise his energies, and is the only place in the Philippine Islands where the American has taken hold to any great extent in plantation enterprises.
“In order that the pier might be located in better water and gain the protection of an island a short way from the coast, it was located about 1.5 miles north of the present anchorage, a road built to the site, custom house and bodegas erected, and, as mentioned above, construction on the pier proper is well under way.
“As an earnest of the public spiritedness and loyalty of the Davao merchants and planters, they have contributed all of the piling for this structure, no small item in its final cost. The approach to this pier will be some 700 feet in length, with a T-head 38 X200 feet, and will afford a depth of water of 24 feet to vessels docking there.”
After it was opened to shipping traffic, it started to accept direct importation, subject, however, to the restrictions of customs. Under the guidelines, most produce from the town of Davao via the wharf was first transshipped to Manila before these were dispatched to the United States. This arrangement resulted in high cost of living and bigger salary scale due to limited manpower supply working at the pier.
A decade and a half later, Santa Ana pier, which was only used by small interisland steamers, and shipping district adjacent to it, figuratively due to wear and tear, were already in a state of disrepair “with danger signs plastered all over it by the district engineer.” To resolve the issue, the authorities proposed the prompt construction of a concrete pier, fearing the collapse of the dilapidated wharf would paralyze commerce in town. Another account described the quay’s role in Davao’s growth:
“The shipping point is the barrio of Santa Ana, where are situated the hemp warehouses and the pier. The officers of the export houses are here; a lively community is developing. Adjacent plantations are situated up the Davao River. The town is on the north bank. The river empties into the gulf a short distance below the town, near Santa Ana. With the exception of Juan Anad, the owners of up-river plantations are Filipinos. Considerable quantities of hemp are shipped down the river and bought by Chinese dealers in Davao.”
Between 1910 and 1925, as an impact of the opening of Santa Ana pier, socio-economic changes were visible in the development of the town. To link Daliaon on the south, a good 19 kilometers from the town proper, a road that allowed automobiles to pass was opened. Reaching the poblacion from there meant negotiating a small concrete ford at Talomo River and crossing Davao River on a light pontoon bridge, which was later opened to truck traffic. At the time, the entire province was already home to over 400 cars.
E.C. Walters, in an article titled ‘The Present Status and Volume of Davao Commerce,’ which appeared in the August 1925 issue of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal, wrote:
“This [Davao-Daliaon] road has been built through an extensively cultivated district, yet the products of the district are hauled either to Talomo or Daliaon and transported by launch to Davao. A suitable bridge across the Davao River would completely change the system of transportation of the products of this district. A continuation of this road through Santa Cruz on to the Padada valley and beyond, and a few kilometers of roads in other directions would open up a vast acreage of very fertile land now accessible only along the coast line of the gulf and inland along the banks of a few rivers navigable to small launches.”
Meanwhile, the sending of telegraphic communication to Manila via Zamboanga was made through a small station in what is now known as Wireless at Madapo Hills, near the Masonic cemetery. So inefficient was the budget of the station that it only had a budget for one bicycle messenger who delivered and picked up messages in the town proper and at the Santa pier for relay to Zamboanga. Due to this deficiency, it required more time to deliver a message from the wireless station to Santa Ana than thes transmission from Manila to Davao via Zamboanga.
Additionally, Walters added, “the time required to file a Santa Ana message via the Davao post office or the wireless station requires more time than for the transmission of the message to Manila. A land line from the wireless station to Santa Ana (where all the exporters have their offices) and the maintenance thereof would require a very small outlay of government funds, but would improve the service from four to twelve hours on each Santa Ana message.
“Mail communication is made possible principally by the interisland steamers, operating on a Manila, Cebu or Iloilo, Zamboanga and Davao schedule requiring from 20 to 25 days for the round trip. Requisitions sent from Davao by mail are ordinarily filled within six weeks. For the present no remedy is seen and the Davao merchant reckons this delay as one of the cost items of doing business there.”
In today’s parlance, we call it snail-paced mail.
