Finding Big Brother in Davao City: a newbie’s impressions of Digong’s home

THE FIRST THING a passenger might notice after disembarking then exiting Davao’s Francisco Bangor International Airport is the presence of the city mayor, now incoming president Rodrigo R. Duterte, in the form of a standee — a life-sized cardboard cut-out of a person, usually of a celebrity.

The second thing one would notice is the sprawling property of Apollo Quiboloy, leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc., which has a huge following in the city. Mr. Quiboloy is also said to be a very close friend of Mr. Duterte.

Now, this particular standee — of Mr. Duterte wearing a black Nike polo shirt and jeans — is of some import as it was a fixture in almost every establishment visited by the media attending a familiarization trip hosted by the Department of Tourism and its regional counterpart.

Everywhere we went, people were gleefully having their pictures taken with it — Davao City might well be the only place in the country that treats a local government official as a tourist draw. Maybe this is something that should be expected in the heart of Duterte country.

Aside from the omnipresent Duterte stand-ins, the city has an Orwellian vibe of “Big Brother is watching you.” Residents aren’t shy to tell visitors about the numerous cameras surveying the whole city, or stories of neighbors or friends’ friends killed in broad daylight because of their suspected involvement in drug-running, gun-running, theft, and other crimes.

For the Davao City-uninitiated, like this writer who spent four days in the city from April 29 to May 2, all this will come as a shock.

EMPTY STREETS
A part of the media group arrived in Davao on the afternoon of April 29, and proceeded to dinner at Luz Kinilaw, a 47-year-old dining institution at Salmoan, Quezon Blvd., which also happened to have a Duterte standee. It is best known for its tuna dishes. What the media noted that evening was that establishments close early in Davao City. Our local guide pointed out that they close at around 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Dinner was finished at around 8 p.m. and the group was shuttled off to a pub crawl featuring four watering holes in the city. Aside from diners, convenience stores, malls, fast-food joints and pubs, everything else is closed.

Very few people were on the streets by this time and the traffic was definitely much lighter than in Metro Manila, although our guide pointed out that it had become heavier in recent years.

High-rise condominiums and office buildings were also beginning to fill the city skyline, much like in Metro Manila or Metro Cebu.

But unlike in Metro Manila, where Sundays are often considered shopping days, people in Davao apparently take their Sundays seriously. Shops at the local arcade, the 40-year-old Aldevinco which is famous for showcasing batik products, were closed except for a select few. Instead there was a proliferation of vendors who would invite you to buy their Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses, saying these were “smuggled.”

This was interesting considering that a few days before, the Coalition of Filipino Consumers (CFC) had accused Mr. Duterte’s son, Paolo, of being the “king of smugglers in Davao.” Perfecto Jaime Tagalog, the head of the consumer group, claimed in an Interaksyon.com article on April 24, that “smuggling of rice, electronic products, luxury vehicles, canned goods and ukay-ukay (second-hand clothes) is rampant in Davao because of the Duterte family.” Paolo Duterte denied these accusations in a text message sent to GMA, which did a story on it in its news program 24 Oras. “I will wait for the formal charges and answer them in court,” said Duterte fils. “This is black propaganda related to the rising survey numbers of our candidate Rody Duterte.”

FEELING SAFE
One of Davao City’s claims to fame is that it is one of the “safest cities” in the world — and this claim is widely accepted if still disputed by some.

People have said they felt safe walking the city’s streets at night and leaving their belongings unattended because criminals fear incurring the wrath of the city mayor and his brand of justice. Mr. Duterte previously boasted of killing more than a thousand “criminals” and has remarked that if elected president that number would be multiplied and bodies will be dumped in Manila Bay to “fatten the fish.”

Whether that actually happens or not, what Davao City does have are nearly 200 surveillance cameras monitoring the city and its people — there are 17 long-range ones for traffic surveillance and more than 170 cameras located at points of entries, shopping malls, and other public places.

The video feeds come to the straight-forwardly named Public Safety and Security Command Center which is the hub for everything from crime and traffic, to health and disaster risk reduction, and is the station for many of the city’s ambulances, fire trucks, and other emergency response vehicles.

The video screens at the surveillance floors — one is for traffic and one is for daily street life — are monitored 24/7 by mostly male personnel (some of whom, during our visit, curiously only zoomed in whenever there was a woman on the screen). There is also a 24-hour call center (the number to dial is 911) which routes messages for help to the appropriate department.

If one has to sum up the reasons why so many people idolize Mr. Duterte, it all boils down to this: he makes people feel safe — safe enough to accept that they are always under surveillance and that killing “criminals” in broad daylight is okay. — ZBC