Davao City Office for Culture and the Arts

August is History Month in the Philippines. This was started when President Benigno S. Aquino III, more popularly known as PNoy, signed Proclamation No. 339 on February 16, 2012.

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) is the lead agency in celebrating History Month and this year’s theme is “Diwa ng Kasaysayan, Kabilin sa Kabataan” (Spirit of History, Heritage for the Youth).

Why is August historical for the Philippines? Because several key historical events happened this month.

August is the birth anniversaries of national hero Marcelo H. Del Pilar, leader of the Propaganda Movement, and former Philippine Presidents Manuel L. Quezon and Ramon Magsaysay. It is also the death anniversaries of Presidents Quezon and Corazon Aquino, our first female president. Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., popularly known as Ninoy, was also assassinated in August.

It is also our “Buwan ng Pambansang Wika” (Month of the National Language). And our National Heroes Day is also celebrated every August.

Under the presidential proclamation, local governments and civic organizations are encouraged to organize meaningful celebrations all over the country.

In Davao City, August is our Kadayawan Festival month, when we celebrate our indigenous cultural heritage and thanksgiving for our abundant harvest. 

This year, our Kadayawan is going back to its roots by declaring that it is “a festival rooted in culture and abundance.” This renewed interest in the festival’s history and meaning was  in response to the call of several stakeholders — notably our indigenous communities and our culture and arts sector — that celebrations in the past few years have seemingly lost their “original flavor.”

The Davao Historical Society (DHS), a civic organization founded in 1961 dedicated to preserving and promoting appreciation of Davao’s history, stressed that Kadayawan is, at its core, a cultural festival that is rooted in our local history.

“It is a celebration of the diversity of our culture and nature to promote social cohesion and peace among Davaoeños,” explained Davao City Office for Culture and the Arts head Oscar “Oca” Casaysay, who also serves as DHS vice-president. “It is for the diverse peoples of Davao first, the tourism component is just an added bonus.”

What that means is Kadayawan, which is a celebration of everything that is good, bountiful, and excellent (madayaw) in Davao, is a showcase of how diverse Davaoeños live and work together in harmony. That visitors also want to partake in our celebration is a good addition.

That is what draws people to visit, invest in, and stay in Davao City — the experience of living peacefully in a multicultural and cosmopolitan city and sharing together its abundant harvest.

I believe we are able to attract visitors and investors because of our unique Davaoeño culture, which we cultivated and nourished through the years post-1986 with our Kadayawan Festival.

We gather every August, harvest season, as a community from different ethnolinguistic groups who made Davao City our home. During its early years the festival was a hit-and-miss as we were still finding out what the celebration means to all of us living here.

While working together as a community, we came up with our shared vision of the festival. We identified what the major components of our celebration must be that honor our indigenous traditions yet also innovate as we grow as a city. Every year, we set a theme for the festival so that our people understand the meaning why we are doing this. Embedded in the events are the values we hold dear as a community, connecting us deeper with one another.

That, I think, is the secret sauce of our Kadayawan Festival, which is truly original and one-of-a-kind in the country. When we shifted our focus inward towards social cohesion, cultivating our connection while celebrating our diversity, the festival started to become bigger and better.

When we have learned how to work together — government, business, schools, civic and grassroots organizations — planning, organizing, and implementing the festival year after year, we became closer as a community. That closeness made us stronger, more resilient, better citizens.

We are “madayaw’ first — we love our city and our people first — and that is why during our Kadayawan, we are able to welcome and embrace others into our city. That unity in diversity is what makes us attractive to tourists and investors.

So if we lose that diversity of culture and nature and we become divided and not maintain the sharing our abundance mindset, we lose our “madayaw” spirit. And Kadayawan will become just like any other tourism-driven event.

And that is why I am glad Kadayawan 2025 is going back to its roots. Even though the City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) has been seen as spearheading the annual celebration every year, its proper role is only a festival secretariat. It is not the decision-maker. There is a multi-sectoral executive committee headed by the city mayor, elected by the people, to make sure the celebration is of the people, for the people, and by the people because it is, after all, funded by the people. There is also a private sector co-chair who will mobilize participation of other nongovernment sectors to help pool resources for the festival.

We hope next year’s Kadayawan will include more sectors in our city in the executive committee and working committees. We have a vibrant and very talented culture and arts community and creative industries that can mount a cultural festival that reflects our diverse culture. We have very productive agriculture and floriculture industries as well as a growing startup ecosystem that can showcase our city’s bountiful harvest and innovative solutions and inventions.

Our history month theme reminds us that the spirit of history is our heritage for the youth. Let us make sure our Kadayawan Festival is always rooted in our Davao history so that the new generation of Davaoeños will not lose our “madayaw” character that makes us unique. That way, we will only attract the right kind of tourists and investors who share our community’s values and will enrich the life that is here.