Older than the Davao City National High School (DCNHS), Davao Elementary School, later Davao Central Elementary School, was built early in 1905 with a budget of P6,421.58. A year later, it got an added P1,264.15 appropriation but failed to get any in the next two years. On February 3, 1909, the Mindanao Herald reported that the construction of the school continued.
In May 1921, under Plan No. 10, the school was provided with two additional rooms annexed to the rear of the building, with a 0.40-meter floor elevation, much higher than what was originally approved. The project was completed at a cost of P65,602; it was turned over and accepted by the school authorities on November 10, 1921.
For years, the learning institute, now Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Central Elementary School (KTMCES), was the town’s leading preparatory and embroidery school, guided in most part by mentors recruited from the northern region and hired by the Bureau of Education.
One of the most recognized educators that served the institution was Januario Puruganan. In 1923, due to a lack of materials for the yearly Mother’s Day program, he composed the poem, ‘To Mother,’ which the pupils of teacher Encarcacion Bernardo recited and sang. The following year he wrote ‘We Halt Not Here,’ also a poem, which became the graduation song of Class 1924.
A native of Batac, Ilocos Norte, Puruganan, later a published author (‘To Mother and Other Poems,’ 1929), was promoted to supervising teacher of Mati before going on a sabbatical in 1926 to finish his studies at the Silliman University where he was associate editor of the ‘The Sillimanian.’ In 1932, he graduated from the College of Wooster, at the Princeton Theological Seminary in Ohio, USA, and became a Protestant pastor of San Fernando, La Union. He died in 1945.
Puruganan’s works were included in ‘Master Index to Poetry: An Index to Poetry in Anthologies & Collections’ (1988), published in Great Neck, New York. Among his famous poems are ‘My Idea,’ ‘My Dormant Lyre,’ ‘My First Spring in America,’ ‘Rizal the Immortal,’ and ‘To Rizal.’
When war broke out, KTMCES became a concentration camp for Japanese internees. Hiroyuki Mizugichi, a student of Davao City High School recruited to the Davao Japanese Vigilante Troop, was one of those who were detained on the premises. In ‘Jungle of No Mercy: Mercy of a Japanese Soldier,’ (2010) he detailed what the school looked like during his incarceration:
“The elementary school was situated on an approximately 15-hectare lot, its frontage was about 300 meters long along Ponciano Reyes Street, and 400 meters northwest toward Tomas Claudio Street. The area was fenced with barbed wire for the gates in front and at the back.
“There was a standard 400-meter track and field stadium and a big grandstand that could accommodate at least 1,500 people and a maximum of 10,000 people could be accommodated in other school buildings in the area. […] There were four wide gates facing Ponciano Reyes Street. Three of these gates were bolted except the one at the extreme right of the camp which was left open. The gate was guarded by five or six Filipino USAFFEE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) soldiers with high-powered rifles.”
It was only after the Imperial troops arrived in Davao City on December 20, 1941, that the Japanese prisoners of war were freed. The military converted the school premises into the Japanese army headquarters, one of the many structures sequestered by the invaders in the city’s residential and commercial districts.
Under Republic Act 6156, enacted on November 9, 1970, and signed by President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, Sr., the school was renamed Capitan Tomas Monteverde, Sr. Elementary School. (Note that ‘C’ was used in the statute.) The school’s compound has since been greatly reduced.
