Kinablangan | Power Outage & Fiesta

Saturday did not start well; in fact, the power outage occurred as early as 6 AM (Philippine Time). There’s nothing good when you live in a rural area where there’s no power, regardless of whether it’s for five minutes or five hours. It shows that the power supply to the whole region of Davao Oriental is not enough to be given to every town that’s part of this region. By 9 AM (Philippine time), the only cell site owned by Globe Network had just died. There’s no power or way to communicate online for the next few hours. There was news from DORECO (Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative, Inc.) that the outage will last for twelve hours while the town has a special event.

Every year, this part of Kinablangan opens the countdown to celebrate the founding of the municipal town of Baganga, which will happen on October 18th. I never had the opportunity to see this happen in 2023, as we were heading back to Manila in the first week after not visiting this side of the region.

I haven’t been to this place since April 2012, and the last time I visited Davao City was in January 2013. It was quite the experience living here for the last 40-plus days in 2023. But for this year, it’s a stretch that I lasted more than two months since arriving on July 28. The last town fiesta I had experience was in the municipal town of Baganga sometime in September 2023.

Marching Bands

This time, the inaugural event also features small-town sports leagues for basketball and volleyball happening at the Barangay compound with a marching band from Dr. Beato Macaryra National High School. I didn’t get to see them march around the town, but I got to see them prepare their band to start the festivities.

There was a huge crowd visiting from different towns to see the event open up and witness the marching band perform before the games began. Surprisingly, pop-up stores started setting up, even the local tourist office for the Poo Island had vendors selling beach accessories like hats and shades.

Communicate by the Sea

While communications and power were out, the only way to access communication and the internet was by sea. In short, the signal can be accessed near the Fish Landing Jetty near the wet market. The youth who do not reside in this town don’t even know they can access the internet at the beach itself.

It’s like back in the day when we were trying to get FM radio reception, the only way to get a good signal for some good music was by the sea. This was more than 15 years ago at my Grandma’s house, which is still standing today. But the radio station could not be accessed by radio signal, and they don’t have internet streaming.

Before 5 PM, the power was restored, and the cell site got a signal back by 5:30 PM. It’s really that terrible that I can understand the locals' frustration with how DORECO had poor service in supplying Davao Oriental with stingy service. Personally, it’s just another not-so-eventful Saturday.