Downtown Marawi City from Mindanao State University
“Even most MSU students don’t dare to go to ‘town,’” a Maranao friend of mine once said.
Marawi City has been hampered with so much negative publicity in the Philippine mainstream that for the people of the lowlands, the only thing that makes them go there would be enrolling or visiting at Mindanao State University—never mind the rest of the city! People are too scared to venture out to the streets of the Maranao city.
Yes to Gensan Manong Kargador! Mabuhay ka! (Long Live!)
If it is yellow-fin tuna, it’s got to be Gensan (General Santos City)! The fifty billion peso tuna industry has been synonymous to General Santos City, the boom town sitting beside the deep harbor of Sarangani Bay. Ever since 1970s, armadas of both small and commercial fishing boats have been disembarking the “chicken of the sea” in Gensan or Dadiangas, from the bounties of The Pacific and Celebes Sea. Because of this, it has attracted a lot of investors in setting up tuna canneries, processing plants and other investors—along with workers, generating thousands of jobs in a highly-industrialized city. Because of the growing demand, General Santos City was in need of better facilities for trading yellow-fin tuna. In 1999, the General Santos Fish Port Complex was opened. It wouldn’t be “The Tuna Capital of the Philippines” for nothing, right?
The prized catch from the sea--Yellowfin Tuna
General Santos Fish Port is located at Barangay Tambler, some 15 kilometers south from downtown Gensan—quite far if you’re not used to the distance. But no traffic here, so it’ll be just a quick ride in the industrial districts of Labangal, Calumpang, and Tambler.
