Monuments of Downtown Davao

In matters of land area Davao City is the largest city in Asia with around 3 to 4 million citizens. But you can not find many high buildings and big buildings are usually hotels, banks or malls. The downtown area doesn't clearly appear as the center of the city but you can see that most buildings there are very old. In front of the City Hall is a tiny park where people gather. 

While walking further you can easily overlook the main "downtown sights" like a statue of José Rizal and the San Pedro church. 

The church "San Pedro" has the shape of a boat which represents Noah's ark and the monument in front refers to its passengers. "The Commemorative Monument of Peace and Unity" is a beautiful statue with obviously Filipino peasants on it. Moreover the monument gives a clue to the philosophy of the nation. While it expresses nice words its letters are already hanging down - officially the Republika ng Pilipinas has a nice democratic constitution but in reality everything is going upside down.

BUT "Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." (Margaret Mead).

And José Rizal (1861 - 1896) is one of them. He is a very famous Filipino nationalist and the most popular advocate for reforms in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He wrote poems, essays and novels; his most famous works are "Noli me tangere" and "El Filibusterismo".

 His name is used for several streets, avenues or places in every Filipino city and usually many statues too (btw you can find his statue even in Heidelberg (Germany)). The Philippines also dedicated a holiday to him which is coincidentally on my birthday: december 30 (that was the day he died)! 

Actually most of the streets are either called after the names of Christian saints or of former Filipino writers and presidents. But outside people refer rather to landmarks and barangays than to street names.