DAVAO City ranks high again in the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project 2007 of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). The Dabawenyos will always say that is obvious. Others will look on in envy.
* Number 1 most competitive city in the Philippines
* Number 3 in Responsiveness of LGU
* Number 4 in Dynamism of Local Economy
* Number 7 in Human Resources and Quality of Life
The bigger pat on our collective backs is that the city has managed to drop Makati City, the country's financial center, from the top slot after tying with it on the number 1 slot in the last survey two years ago as most competitive city.
A cause for celebration, a grand one. Except that... the disturbing talks about communist rebels gaining a foothold in the city, and the seemingly endless gun battles in the provinces surrounding the city is one major cause of concern.
We don't need to stress how important peace and order is for a city to continue to grow and benefit its people. The people of Davao know this so well, especially those who have witnessed how it was in the 1980s when the rebels made our city the urban laboratory for guerilla warfare.
We have allowed these elements to trample on our economy a long time ago when Davao was yet but full of promise but not much else. We shouldn't allow them to trample on our economy again when we have all cooperated to make the city what it is today, a city not just of promise but bursting with business and more potential.
Our people have said enough is enough a long time ago. Let us not let anyone bring us down again. And for this, we need our local government and military and police authorities to prove their worth.
There's a word of caution attached to this challenge to prove their worth though, especially for the military and the police. Let not be an encouragement to go on witch-hunting and take down just about anyone just to earn "pogi" points.
Witch-hunting is the work of the lazy and the unworthy; the evil-minded who are not opposed to snuffing out a life or two for self-aggrandizement. Davao doesn't deserve this, Dabawenyos should allow nor tolerate this. Rather, the police and the military should use all their intelligence to prove that indeed the propaganda units of the communists are already breeding in our city's urban settlements, prove that that the Sparu is back, and with it, prove that the men you will arrest are indeed members of the propaganda unit and the Sparu.
In the same way that Davao has seen enough of being a communist urban laboratory, we have also seen enough of baseless summary executions.
