Monday, March 16, 2020

Not who is but where is?

Municipalities and cities named after family names of personalities with cultural and heroic contributions are common in the Philippines. But named in full including the middle initial is exceptional. Have you been to Braulio E. Dujali in Davao Del Norte?

To get there from Panabo, you pass through a banana plantation where you are required to soak your shoes walking in a disinfecting mat. In the same area you spot the Davao Penal Colony. Prisoners provide labor services to the plantation. The thought of prisoners tending to a farm brought back images in John Steinbeck's 1939 novel "The Grapes of Wrath," a piece of literature we dissected in college.

All these were triggered by a municipality named after a first, middle initial and a last name of an important person.

From Wikipedia, B. Dujali was the leader of a group of settlers from South Cotabato.

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