One of the earliest visits to Davao by officials from Manila was made on June 9, 1917, spearheaded no less by Secretary Galicano Apacible, of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR), who was appointed to the Cabinet post that year.
The group consisted of two ships, Islas Filipinas and Negros, and several high-profile personalities that included bureau chiefs of Agriculture, Science, and Lands; Ramon Soriano and Dr. Simeon Villa of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce (PCC); Enrique Brias, director of the Philippine National Bank (PNB); and Francisco Villanueva, the department’s chief clerk.
The party, after visiting San Jose, Mindoro, and Pulupandan, Negros Occidental, reached Davao nearly a week too early than June 13 as originally scheduled. They arrived at Santa Ana pier after skipping Malita, Davao Occidental, due to rough seas. Obviously uninformed of the change in timetable, frantic preparations were made but still the outcome was very productive.
Apacible’s group was fetched in by autos that brought them to the town center where the provincial and town offices were sited. They also visited the trade school that was hosting boat-building activities. From there, they met the planters and other individuals at the schoolhouse.
Central to the meeting was the issue of labor, which affected efficiency in farms and affected the opening of new agricultural estates. A suggestion was even made to admit Chinese laborers to the workforce to increase farm output and ensure proper maintenance of the plantations.
Alvin J. Cox, director of the Bureau of Science, noted: “The planters who have plenty of labor are prosperous… However, laborers are lacking. The plantations yield excellent crops but they cannot be extended or new plantations started without some solution of the labor problem, The general sentiment is in favor of the admission of Chinese laborers, for it is almost impossible for those who do not have labor to secure any, or for those who now have to increase their harvests.”
After lunch, the entourage proceeded to Talomo where the plantation of Ohta Development Company was found. For the five autos to reach the destination, they had to be ferried across Davao River one at a time, and to traverse another waterway before reaching the terminus. They were also shown the abaca plantation managed by P.C. Libby at Ulas.
In the early dawn of June 10, the group left for Malita, hopeful to reach the place at daylight. They were met at the lighter pier by Orville V. Wood, erstwhile acting governor of Davao, and planter Harvey Johnson. Mack Cretcher, assistant secretary of agriculture, had the misfortune of having his middle finger hurt as he landed from the launch while holding on to the pier pile.
In Cox’s travelog titled ‘Agricultural Progress in the Philippines,’ what stood out is the account about Wood’s place. He described Wood’s newly completed beautiful house as ipil-finished and his 463-hectare estate as “one of thrift.” The hacienda has its own store, electric light, and refrigeration plant, and is mostly planted in abaca; it also has high-yielding rubber trees. The principal reason why Wood, a native of Los Angeles, California, eventually decided to permanently settle in Malita was the availability of water supply, which was quite scarce back home.
The party, hours after leaving Malita and navigating the southeastern point of Mindanao ‘in the trough of a Pacific wave,’ arrived in Boston, Davao Oriental, on June 11, described in the travelog as “an interesting nipa barrio.” They stayed there for a short time before sailing to Surigao after leaving behind Davao governor Eulalio E. Causing and Rep. Teodoro Palma Gil.
Cox wrote a personal impression of the place, which was regularly visited monthly by the cargo ship of Fernandez Hermanos: “Even in this isolated place they grow coconuts and hemp… Already one little nipa warehouse has quite a pile of abaca ready for shipment. I bought a beautiful piece of piña, all there was in the town. The coast is beautiful all the way.”
