EDGEDAVAO VOL. 6 ISSUE 194 • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2013
BIGGER PICTURE
13
REVISITING DAVAO STREET LIGHTS PROJECT
Making wonders even for common ‘tao’ P
RIMARILY conceptualized as beautification and a deterrent to crimes, the street lighting project here has evolved into something more than what it can be useful even in simple ways for ordinary Davaoeños. Way back almost 18 years ago or November 28, 1995, the late Luis Alfonso “Al” Aboitiz, president of Davao Light and Power Company, and Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte, mayor of Davao City, signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to signal the launching of the Davao City Street Lighting Project. The project’s primary concern was to provide all major public thoroughfares, streets, roads with adequate and cost-effective street (sodium) lights as a major component of the city government’s peace and order and beautification programs. It was designed with the end view of arresting, if not completely putting a stop, to the rising tide of criminality in the streets. It is an accepted theory
that crimes and criminals thrive best under the culture of darkness. Immediately, the seed of the idea to use such a potent instrument in the more active fight to get rid of, or at least minimize the incidence of criminality was planted into the mind of Mayor Duterte. True enough, records of the Davao City Police Office showed that the city’s crime incidence has remarkably dropped to a certain level, contributing so much to improve the peace and order situation that boosted the investor’s confidence to do business here. And through the years, lighted streets have also been working wonders even for ordinary people. During night time, vendors along the streets of San Pedro, Magallanes, Bolton, Bonifacio, Ponciano Reyes and Uyanguren are taking advantage of street lights to sell their wares like street foods, “ukay-ukay” (used clothing), utencils, among others. Motorists can feel safe driving at night
WELL-LIGHTED CITY: Davao is one of the most lighted cities making it one of the most livable and safest cities in the country.
with well-lighted streets. Meanwhile, taxi drivers working for 24 hours usually take some time to rest and sleep inside their vehicle under lighted streets in downtown areas, purposely to avoid being victims of robbers. This was affirmed by
Midvalley taxi driver Dennis Mangan, who rented a house in San Antonio, Buhangin district, together with his wife and two children. “I feel safe when I park my car under sodium lights. I can sleep well,” Dennis said in an inter-
view in vernacular. Due to the presence of street lights, farmers can now go early on in their sprawling rice fields and be home as late as 6 p.m. Street lights also do good for teenagers, especially those who are into dancing. Bringing only
a mobile phone or MP3 and a speaker, they can already practice their dance steps beside lighted streets. To sum it up, the street lighting project in one way or the other has contributed a lot to the booming city of Davao.