Dapitan: An ambitious city

Dapitan is an island.

Four bridges connect it to the mainland of the Zamboanga Peninsula and soon one more is going to be built to make the island more ‘accessible’.

That’s according to Vice Mayor Patri B. Chan who, in the absence of Mayor Dominador G. Jalosjos during our arrival, welcomed us with a brief introduction to Dapitan and to the music of the Shrine Kids Quartet and the Dapitan City Tourism Chorale.

Accessibility should not be a problem though to a Dapitan visitor, as we found out. Coming to and from the island is more than convenient enough. A twenty-minute drive will quickly find one already in Dipolog City, another laid back community that serves as gateway to other Philippine cities. Dipolog is nowadays waking up to the enchanting charm of development.

So is Dapitan, a city all of 82,000 souls living in 50 barangays scattered along 29,000 hectares of plain arable lands, wondrous rock formations, and medium-range hills, lush green on a hot summer with fruit-bearing trees, rubber and coconuts. The calm seas of the Sulu Sea wash its western shores, including its most famous, Dakak, the beach resort seven kilometers south of the city. An expanded modern highway now connects Dakak to the Dapitan city center.

Dapitan’s belonging to modernity gets a boost from its ties to history: its claim to be the Shrine City of the Philippines. Make that “Jose Rizal Shrine City” for no other city in the country has more shrines dedicated or connected to the life and times of the national hero, who lived and spent four short, but precious, years in the island.

St. James, the Apostle, is Dapitan’s patron saint. He is depicted as an image of a horse-mounted warrior raring for a fight. His feast is celebrated from July 15-25 every year, highlighted by the ‘Sinug’, a dance procession, and ‘Kinabayo’, a local pageant in living colors re-enacting the battle between the native chief Covadonga and the Moor, Clavijo. According to local accounts, the latter prevailed in this battle only because of the apparition of St. James who lent Clavijo timely succor.

Notwithstanding this depiction of the subjugation of the local people by the rampaging invaders, Dapitan has become a big story interwoven between its storied past and its yearning and aspiration for a comely and bright future.

This past—or place in history—is already guaranteed by the accident of fate. Thrust into the map as Jose Rizal’s home when the latter was punished of banishment—exile, as the history books say—the island was, and forever will be, associated with that solitary chapter in Rizal’s life and benefited abundantly from his creativity and benevolence.

The first of this association is Sta. Cruz beach in Dapitan Bay where 225 years earlier, or in 1565, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi erected a 20-foot cross to symbolize the propagation of Christianity in this remote part of Mindanao. It is on this beach where the S. S. Cebu, the wooden corvette that sailed from Manila, deposited Rizal and a handful of Spanish civil guards on the island. This landing is honored by a shrine, the first of the must-see shrines of Dapitan.

Overlooking the bay is Ilihan Hill, an old fortress that houses the Spanish settlement at the time. The name of the place is derived from “ili”, which means “fortress” in itself. When Rizal was here, the settlement was led by Ricardo Carnicero, the Spanish commandant who was in charge of the high-value prisoner. Carnicero stayed with Rizal all throughout his banishment.

“Dapitan is a rural city dreaming of big things. We are an ambitious city,” says Vice Mayor Chan. “Our ambition is reflected in our priorities,” she added.

And those priorities include developing Dapitan as a world-class tourist destination, an ambition that is now beginning to take shape as the city emerges from its rural cocoon.

I was in Dapitan last week as part of the contingent of Department of Labor and Employment officials which sat down for a two-day workshop on the department’s balance scorecard performance report which we needed to finalize as the country moves in transition with the inauguration of a new president and a new administration.

We arrived while Dapitan was in a frenzy over the Hudyaka Festival, a one-week thanksgiving celebration (Hudyaka means thanksgiving) of songs, fashion, food, dances, parades and sporting events that announces Dapitan’s arrival in modern times and signals its membership bid to the country’s elite circle of premier tourist destinations.

DOLE Regional director Ponciano ‘Nonoy’ Ligutom hosted this visit—and our workshop—so it was his warm hospitality and the efficiency of his staff that gave us a close view of the Dapitanon’s socio-cultural upbringing. They patiently and gamely guided our education about Dapitan.

“Dapitan is an emerging eco-tourism player. It has great potential,” said Dir. Ligutom, pointing to us the colorful and varied Hudyaka Festival activities.

Vice Mayor Chan proudly agrees. She said: “The Hudyaka Festival now ranks fifth among the country’s festivals.”

Articulate and bursting with enthusiasm, Chan bared the local government’s plans for the city in the next three years. On the works is the bid of the city to host the Palarong Pambansa, the annual sporting mecca that draws thousands of athletes from all over the country.

“In December, we will be moving to our new city hall,” she said.

The new city hall is a head-turner. Standing by the banks of the Dapitan River, the domed edifice towers over the surrounding residential houses and a few commercial buildings and serves as sentinel on a busy fisherman’s wharf on its feet. On the day we visited, the wharf teemed with abundant produce from the sea and local sellers and buyers from as far as Pagadian City were haggling for the freshest at the best prices.

And what will the local government do with the old city hall? Vice Mayor Chan did not say, but most likely, it will be transformed into yet another shrine, or even into a museum. The old city hall is patterned after a Casa Real of Spanish design. Its interiors have been changed, but the exterior façade has not been touched which lends the edifice an ambience of antiquity.

One’s visit to Dapitan would be incomplete without a stroll on the Dapitan City Plaza by the yard of the century-old church of St. James and the rectory, two Spanish heritage edifices that have withstood the ravages of time.

The plaza is an old promenade that Rizal himself designed. Itself a shrine, the plaza’s lights are now powered by electricity, but in Rizal’s time, he lined the public square with tree trunks complete with lamps fueled by coconut oil. When we visited, the plaza smelt of solemn ambience. In the air, unseen, must have been Jose Rizal’s ghost taking a visual survey of his creation.

Another shrine worth a visit is the Lourdes Grotto, at the southwest foot of Ilihan Hill. Before the Spaniards dedicated the site as a Christian shrine, the place served as burial grounds of the ancient Dapitanons.

Most famous, most frequently-gawked at is Rizal’s house, a shrine that mimics the original residence of the hero in the island. One can imagine Rizal himself choosing the native, light materials that he used in the construction of his house. The house’s design bespoke of Rizal’s simple, yet utilitarian taste, as well as his attempt to be modern.

It is in this house where Rizal entertained his numerous visitors; and where his family stayed on extended visits. On the front yard is where Rizal even had whispered nightly discussion and debates with Pio Valenzuela when the latter came as Andres Bonifacio’s emissary to bring the news of the impending break-out of the Philippine Revolution in Luzon. On his visit, Valenzuela even tempted Rizal with a seemingly irresistible offer: an escape which the latter turned down to Bonifacio’s dismay.

Dapitan, according to Vice Mayor Chan, has two distinct faces. “There is an Old Dapitan and there is a New Dapitan,” she explained.

The Old Dapitan, she explained, is the Dapitanons’ heritage that they aim to preserve. “It’s our connection to the past which we strengthen and safeguard from the intrusion of modernity represented by the technology revolution—building design, infrastructure, economics, etc. In the Old Dapitan, we don’t allow just anything to be adopted, inserted or built,” she said.

The opposite is true with the New Dapitan. This section of the city is a profusion of modern structures, facilities, and commerce. “Anything in the New Dapitan is permissible, except those that violate our laws and ordinances and those that serve as an affront to decency, honor and culture of the Dapitanons,” says Chan.

The road that leads to this New Dapitan is Sunset Boulevard which provides a spectacular view of the Dapitan sunset. Imagine Rizal sitting in front of this view, beside a heart-shaped rock, while writing his “Mi Retiro” and “El Himno A Talisay”. This rock is now aptly called Mi Retiro Rock, another prominent shrine.

On Sunset Boulevard sits some of Dapitan’s resort hotels, Alexandra by the Sea, Bajamunde Resort Farms Hotel, and Dapitan City Resort Hotel, which Vice Mayor Chan swears are booked fully especially during summer. Seven kilometers south of the city, in Brgy. Taguilon, is the world-famous Dakak Park and Resort Hotel where the sand beaches are powdery white and the waters azure. For all its grandeur and elegance, Dakak is so quite you can hear nature meditating.

Tourism promotion is the function of the City Tourism Office, which also coordinates the local government’s and the private sector’s cultural and tourism efforts and activities. Lending valuable support to the office is a vibrant cultural and artistic community, personified by the Foundation of Artists and Musicians in Zamboanga del Norte, or FAMUZ.

The FAMUZ’s leading light is Alma Calasang, a nurse who has since changed careers to become a performer, voice coach, and choir conductor. As the city’s artistic consultant, Ms. Calasang is mentoring and managing the Shrine Kids Quartet, Shrine City Band, and the Shrine LGU Choir, all of which performed during our visit. Another musical group, the Dapitan City Tourism Choir, performed using the “angklong” a bamboo chime instrument that originated from Indonesia.

“These performing artists are regulars at the Gloria de Dapitan, the city’s entertainment park which is another must to visitors,” Ms. Calasang says.

The shrines, while compelling to any Dapitan visitor’s itinerary, are just one of the more abundant reasons why one should come to the city. Scuba-diving, trail hiking, mountain biking, local dining, and of course, cross cultural exchange, offer visitors alternative experiences that no other vacation destination in Mindanao can equal.

Access to Dapitan is both by land, air and sea. There are ferries and ships daily and weekly to and from Cebu, Dumaguete, Iligan, Zamboanga, and Manila. By air, one can come either through Philippine Airlines or Cebu Pacific via Dipolog Airport. Buses ply regularly along the Zamboanga City-Dapitan, Davao-Cagayan de Oro-Dapitan, and the Ozamis-Pagadian-Dipolog-Dapitan routes.

Once in Dapitan, imbibe the culture, enjoy the hospitality, savor the history, and partake of the ambition of Rizal’s rustic city.