DAVAO CITY (PIA) -- The “Dabawenyo Ako” campaign on Davao City’s history and heritage has rolled out to 11 schools in Davao City, with thousands of schoolchildren as an audience.

“You can see the happiness of the children. They were very welcoming of the information about Davao. Even the teachers were amazed about the story of Davao City,” said Milbert Cantiberos, president of Guide Union for Inbound Destination Ecotourism (GUIDE) Davao.

Cantiberos said the teachers and students were asking where they could get more information about the history of Davao.

“We tell them that if you want to know more, we have the Museo Dabawenyo, pwede sila mubisita sa museum (they can visit the museum),” Cantiberos said.

“It came from the idea of a fellow tour guide. Tudluan nato mga bata, why not magsugod ta sa mga young ones (We teach children; why not start with the young ones) telling the story of our city?” Cantiberos recalled the beginnings of the school-based history campaign.

The project, which began under the leadership of then-Mayor now Vice President Sara Z. Duterte, was supported by the then City Tourism Operations Office OIC Generose Tecson.

Cantiberos said they proposed the resumption of Dabawenyo Ako during their courtesy visit to the current city tourism chief, Jennifer Ricardo Romero, who agreed to hold the activity as part of the 87th Araw ng Dabaw celebration.

administrative district naa ta poblacion, Agdao, Talomo Toril, Calinan, Marilog Baguio, Paquibato, Buhangin, Bunaawan so we targeted one school per administrative district,” Cantiberos said.

(Our target is public elementary schools belonging to Davao City; we categorize the schools according to the 11 administrative districts. We have the poblacion, Agdao, Talomo, Toril, Calinan, Marilog, Baguio, Paquibato, Buhangin, and Bunawan.)

He said many schools wanted the Dabawenyo Ako team to revisit their campuses and conduct their lectures again; however, Cantiberos said they would want to prioritize schools that they had not yet visited.

“We tell the schools that the Dabawenyo Ako is not just limited to Araw ng Dabaw. We can work out that we can also conduct the activity within the dates that they prefer,” Cantiberos said. (RGA/PIA Davao)