Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Ledesma: Davao botanical garden
By Jun Ledesma
Sunbursts
FOR lack of a name I would, in the interim, call it Davao Botanical Garden. Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte envisions it as a family park and quite rightly so because as Davao City evolves into a modern metropolis much of the space will give way to urbanization.
I am speaking here of a parkland which shall metamorphose from the PTA grounds right at the heart of the city. This used to be an athletic field with an area of nearly seven hectares. Plans to make it into a modern sports arena never pushed through.
Years ago, the main wooden grandstand which also housed the regional office of the Department of Education and several elementary school buildings were razed by fire. Since then the structures that were built were temporary and the field was used more often by driving schools. An Olympic-size swimming pool was built but later abandoned and became a spawning ground for anopheles mosquitoes.
Tuesday, Mayor Duterte formally laid the cornerstone that would signal the massive activity of converting the PTA grounds into a family park. The city had borrowed money from the Land Bank but the mayor himself cannot wait for the approval of the loan. Work has to begin. Even before the cornerstone laying, RDC chairman Jesus Ayala and his wife Fe donated several full grown tree seedlings.
My Ninang Fe as I knew her then, is a lover of nature. And believe me, it was her consuming crusade to restore the vegetation at the Eden Nature Park in Upper Toril that the incredibly beautiful mountain resort came into being from a cogonal wasteland that loggers had long abandoned.
Mayor Duterte knows whom to partner with. When I saw, Ninong Chito and Ninang Fe in that ground breaking ceremony, I knew then sooner than when we expect trees will grow thousands of various tree species will soon come to life at the PTA ground.
I am not kidding. I saw fully matured palm trees (I was told from Mexico) balled and transported and transplanted in the boulevards of the expanded Disneyland. In Beijing, thousands of gingko trees suddenly materialize in the city promenade as authorities prepare for the 2008 Olympics.
Administrator Wendel Avisado confided to me that the mayor wants it opened to the public before the end of the year. Mayor Duterte used to invite Manila-based artists to perform at the PTA ground for the public to see for free. This time, he has a perfect gift for all of us. A park.
I envisioned that a manmade lake snake along the cobbled esplanade where my kids can watch golden and silver carps rushing against the current of water from a fissure where boulders rest at the slope of a mount. Never mind if they are manmade provided the landscape artist obeys the nature clues.
It is in this park where our endemic Waling-waling, the king of orchids, paphiopedilums and phalaeonopsis orchids can grow. An orchidarium inside a botanical garden. Which by the way, why don't we place this park and other parks of the city under the Kadayawan Foundation?
Ah, what a sight. I just hope that it will not degenerate into a dirty commercial park like what happened to Magsaysay Park. I hope it will not be like our Rizal Park were ambulant vendors are being given the special favor to peddle their goods but cannot even improve their stalls, the sanitation, and even their own physical well-being. Look at our Osmeña park. Why do we allow covered space, comic stands and permanent stalls when every basic rule of orderliness and cleanliness are flagrantly violated? The kindness of City Hall is being abused in these parks and I hope that this will not be perpetuated at the Davao Botanical Garden.
Let me just paraphrase Rudyard Kipling in what could be a relevant juxtaposition: When your work is done Mayor, you can wash your hands and pray for the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (August 2, 2006 issue)
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