Travel Guide Davao

Located in southeastern Mindanao, bordered by the Celebes Sea to the south and the Gulf of Davao to the east, Davao is the country's second-largest city by surface area. Divided into eight districts, it covers 244,000 hectares (almost half of which is farmland) and is home to almost 2 million inhabitants, most of whom speak Cebuano. The population is made up of 83% Catholics, 2.4% Muslims and 2.3% supporters of Iglesia ni Cristo. The most important city in Mindanao, Davao is famous for its former mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, who became President of the Republic between 2016 and 2022. At the head of the city for two decades, he prides himself on having transformed Davao from a former Communist rebel stronghold in the 1970s into the "safest city in the archipelago", at the cost of a merciless anti-crime campaign. Highly controversial internationally, he is very popular in Davao. The former mayor is accused by international NGOs of having ordered the execution by "death squads" of some 1,000 individuals, most of them petty criminals. Rodrigo Duterte was also behind a ban on smoking in public places and a 1 a.m. curfew on the sale of alcohol and noisy karaoke.Davao also offers natural and economic advantages. It has a major nearby attraction, the highest peak in the Philippines, Mount Apo. Although a commercial and industrial city, Davao is above all agricultural. There are numerous abaca plantations, as well as corn, rice and coffee plantations. Renowned for its wide variety of exotic fruits, the city is nicknamed "the fruit basket of the Philippines". This is the city of the durian, a fruit that is said to "smell like hell but taste like heaven", and is sold at a very high price in Manila. A festival in its honor is held in September.