Imagining what Davao was like a century earlier provides us a peek into a past that was characterized by growth. From just being a subport of Zamboanga, by 1924 it was turning into an export hub for hemp and coconut, and Santa Ana pier was classified as independent.
As the port of entry, Santa Ana Pier was supplying one-eighth of the country’s hemp production. Freight rates and the delivery of telegraphic and mail notices were fairly fast from Davao.
E. C. Walters, who wrote ‘The Present Status and Volume of Davao Commerce,’ in the August 1925 edition of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal, noted that Manila exporters, since 1923, were already exporting directly from Davao to other parts of the world by virtue of a special authority issued by the government.
The expanding hemp production in Davao was not lost on the government which, by 1924, broached the idea of a new wharf after local merchants appealed to the government for the immediate rehabilitation of Santa Ana pier before it would collapse. They feared that should a catastrophic event happen the impact of a destroyed wharf could paralyze Davao commerce while the overhaul and eventually serviceability of the repaired dock was still anticipated.
At the time, Davao already boasted of a passable road, fit for automobiles, stretching to as far as Daliaon, 19 kilometers away from the town center. To reach that destination, transport negotiated a light pontoon bridge spanning the Davao River and a concrete ford crossing the Talomo River. Rivers are typically not passable during heavy rain when waters from the town’s upper section swell the channels. Trucks were not allowed to use the pontoon bridge for clear reasons.
But the idea to connect the areas adjacent to the Gulf of Davao was progressive. Engineers planned to lengthen the existing road by opening an extension that would traverse San-ta Cruz, then to Padada Valley and beyond. Upon completion, Waters wrote: “[A] few kilo-meters of roads in other directions would open up a vast acreage of very fertile land now accessible only along the coastline of the gulf and inland along the banks of a few rivers naviga-ble to small launches.”
During this time, Davao, already home to over 400 automobiles, was in need of a suitable bridge spanning Davao River to address the transport clamor and to serve as a conveyance for products hauled from many areas of the district, chiefly from the southern sector.
Serving as a medium for telegraphic communication for the town was a small radio receiver station set on a hilly section north of town, now commonly known as Wireless. The gadget was outdated and weak in signal, and messages sent from it had to be relayed through Zamboanga. Its maintenance was sourced from the Bureau of Posts in Davao, and the delivery of messages was undisputedly old-fashioned.
“[T]he telegraph service at Davao is small, so small that it affords the services of only one bicycle messenger, who must deliver messages from the wireless station around Davao, a distance of nearly two kilometers, and then on the Santa Ana, three kilometers farther, return to Davao to pick up the messages filed at the Davao post office during his absence and deliver them to the wireless station for relay to Zamboanga. Bicycle messengers generally are not gifted with the wings of Mercury, and, though they were, the territory this one messenger must cover would wear the best set of wings to a frazzle were he to keep up with the needs of the service.”
The employ of bicycles meant a longer time for the delivery of a message from the station to Santa Ana pier than the time needed to transmit the same to Manila via Zamboanga.
As an added feature, a landline linking the wireless station to Santa Ana was also in use but its repair allotment was so small that it did not improve the transmission. Given that the port was where all the exporters hold offices, inadequacy in maintenance palpably affected efficiency.
