The son of Spanish Gregorio Gil and Carlota Nobleza, also of Spanish lineage, Desiderio Gil was born in La Paz, Iloilo, on June 29, 1889. He took up early education in his hometown. For his tertiary studies, he enrolled at El Colegio de San Beda where he finished Marine Engineering.
After college, he joined Fernandez Hermanos, a shipping firm based in Manila. Shortly thereafter, he was assigned as part of the company’s Davao branch with Feliciano Iñigo, a migrant from Manila, as the managing agent. Through his savings, he acquired a homestead and farmlands in Carmen, Davao del Norte, which he chiefly planted with coconut.
Gil’s first public service stint was as Davao’s first town police chief in 1918. He served the post for only a couple of years as a result of his designation as municipal district president of Tagum, including Hijo area which became the seat of government of the municipality of Tagum. He did not stay long, though, in civil service; he gave it up in favor of cultivating his lands.
On the side, he also bought a motorized launch that carried people and farm products, particularly hemp and copra, from the Tuganay dock in the north to the port of Davao at the Santa Ana district. He named his conveyance ‘Hijos de Gil.’ Inspired by his successful transport business, he went on to build bigger launches that navigated the inner waterways of Tuganay River. Using his knowledge and skills as a marine engineer.
As municipal district president, he is credited for opening feeder roads and setting up countryside schools. A portion of his land was donated for the opening of a road that would connect the dock to the inner regions of Tuganay, now under the town of Carmen. From 1927 to 1930, he became village chieftain of La Paz, which is also a barangay of present-day Carmen.
Four years later, during the second term of Davao governor Juan A. Sarenas, Gil was chosen deputy governor, with the jurisdiction of the northern areas of Davao Province. His watch was chiefly regarded as successful in nurturing friendship and collaboration between Christian and Moro settlers, which earned him the Datu Puti distinction bestowed by Datu Sali de Porcan.
Gil met his wife, Modesta, the daughter of Manuel Ureta and Lucena Ramos in Davao. Their union produced ten children, namely Ruben Pilar, Hortencia G. Buhay, Aida Damaso, Pacifico, Gregorio, Lydia Warr, Exuperia Madrazo, Resurreccion, Zenaida Gragasin, and Nestor.
On their own, most of Gil’s children earned honorable merits in the fields of education, law, business, civil service and politics, and urban development. Ruben Pilar, Hortencia, and Exuperia excelled in Education, while Aida holds the recognition as Davao City’s first lady lawyer.
Lydia and Zenaida held high positions in civil service, while Nestor, the youngest in the brood, was a pillar in urban planning as manager of Regional Cities Development Project. Gregorio and Resurreccion, meanwhile, became local leaders. Only Pacifico made a name in athletics.
Gloria P. Dabbay, in ‘Davao City: Its History and Progress’ (1998), wrote that the Kiwanis Club of Tagum awarded Gil with a posthumous ‘token of appreciation’ but no mention of the date it was given. In part, the award was presented for his pioneering efforts in Tagum in 1919, for introducing the first motorized transport in the same area, and for constructing feeder roads ans barrio schools while actively serving as municipal district president of Tagum.
Gil’s contributions to the current cities of Panabo and Tagum and the municipality of Carmen at a time when these areas hosted only hamlets, need more exhaustive research, especially the role his transport business played in the development of the abaca industry north of the old Davao town, and his share in the development of small riverbank settlements that would eventually become thriving barangays and population centers.
