Davao’s Broken Promises: Millions for Seminars, Misery for the Disabled

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — April 26, 2025

IN A cramped Davao City barangay, 14-year-old Jessa, who has spina bifida, waits for a wheelchair the city promised her family two years ago. The cost to repair her broken one? Less than P20,000—about the price of a single coffee break at one of the city’s lavish “training seminars.” Yet, while Jessa’s family scrapes by, the Davao City Council, under Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte’s administration, approved P354 million for bureaucratic workshops in 2025—1,416 times what Jessa’s wheelchair would cost. Meanwhile, the entire budget for persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the city’s P2.2 billion supplemental fund is a measly P250,000, barely enough to cover a handful of medical bills. This isn’t just fiscal negligence. It’s a moral travesty, dripping with election-season corruption, as Davao’s streets drown and its most vulnerable beg for scraps.

Exposing the Cash Grab: Millions for Seminars, Pennies for the Disabled

The numbers scream betrayal. P354 million for “capability building” seminars—vaguely described as training on “sectoral issuances and existing programs”—towers over the P250,000 allocated for PWDs, a group numbering over 30,000 in Davao City. That’s P8,333 per PWD, barely enough for a month’s mobility aids, versus an average of P1 million per seminar if the budget covers just 354 events, as critics fear.

Councilor Bernard Al-ag, a vice mayoral candidate challenging Mayor Duterte, called this disparity “unreasonable” and “against my conscience” in his vlog series DOKumentado: Ang Kamatuoran sa Davao City, urging funds be redirected to fix broken traffic lights, unclog flood-prone drains, or aid the poor. His dissent was steamrolled by the council’s approval of the budget, revealing a rotten core: a system where murky, bloated expenditures glide through while urgent needs rot.

Is this incompetence or a calculated heist? The timing—months before the 2025 local elections—screams voter manipulation. The P354 million, with no public breakdown of its necessity or beneficiaries, could be a slush fund for political cronies, masquerading as “training.” Such seminars are infamous in Philippine politics for funneling cash to allies or padding campaign coffers. The Duterte administration’s silence on the budget’s specifics fuels suspicion of corruption, especially given the family’s history of power consolidation. Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Davao model,” once tied to extrajudicial killings, now casts a shadow over fiscal priorities, with his son Baste steering the ship.

Worse, Al-ag’s courage has triggered a vicious smear campaign. Social media posts falsely accused him of blocking salary increases for city employees, a lie crafted to enrage Dabawenyos against a candidate daring to defy the Duterte dynasty. Al-ag clarified he supported the raises, included in the supplemental budget, but his call to scrutinize the training funds was twisted into political treason. This misinformation, Al-ag insists, is no glitch but a deliberate strike to sink his vice mayoral bid. The playbook is blatant: crush dissent, shield the status quo, and keep the cash flowing to loyalists.

Tracking the Power: Who’s Cashing In on Davao’s Misery?

The money trail points to Mayor Duterte and his inner circle. The P354 million budget, rubber-stamped by a compliant council, aligns with Baste’s 12-point agenda, touting “digitalization and efficient governance.” Yet, without transparency on who runs these seminars, who attends, or what “sectoral issuances” justify the cost, it reeks of cronyism.

The Duterte family’s chokehold on Davao—spanning decades of mayoral terms, a vice presidency, and now Baste’s reign—thrives on resource control. The training budget could be a pipeline to reward supporters, from councilors to barangay captains, locking in loyalty for 2025.

The smear campaign against Al-ag lays bare the administration’s panic. By framing him as anti-worker, Duterte’s allies aim to neutralize a threat: a candidate with vice mayoral experience, unafraid to expose wasteful spending. The council’s majority, tethered to Duterte, profits from preserving the budget’s opacity, dodging scrutiny that could unravel their own financial ties. Meanwhile, the P250,000 for PWDs—less than 0.02% of the supplemental budget—shows who’s expendable: the marginalized, whose votes carry less weight in a machine fueled by patronage.

Faces of the Forgotten: Floods, Crutches, and Crumbling Dreams

While officials clink glasses at seminars, Davao’s streets scream neglect. In Barangay Matina Crossing, floods trap residents like 62-year-old vendor Lita, who loses days of income when drainage systems, ignored for years, overflow. Al-ag’s push to fund drainage projects could have saved her livelihood, but the P354 million vanished into workshops.

At Davao’s public markets, vendors huddle under leaking roofs, while cemeteries—sacred to grieving families—crumble. Traffic lights, critical for a city of 1.8 million, flicker and fail, fueling gridlock and accidents, yet repairs wait while seminar budgets soar.

For PWDs like Jessa, the pain is visceral. The P250,000 budget can’t cover mobility aids, therapy, or medical care for thousands. Families, often destitute, resort to crowdfunding or go without, while the city splurges on intangibles. The math is cruel: one seminar’s catering could fund a year of therapy for a dozen children. This isn’t a budget line—it’s a choice to value bureaucratic perks over human lives.

A Dynasty’s Dirty Legacy: Power Over People

Davao’s 2025 budget of P14.3 billion flaunts P600 million for the Lingap Program and P255 million for seniors, proof the city can prioritize social good when it suits. So why starve PWDs? Political math. Seniors and broad aid programs woo bigger voting blocs; PWDs, often voiceless, are easy to sideline.

The Duterte administration’s obsession with legacy projects—like the P23-billion Samal-Davao bridge, stalled by environmental woes—betrays a hunger for grandeur over relief. Allegations of fiscal misconduct haunt the Dutertes, from Sara’s misused P375 million in confidential funds to Rodrigo’s drug war excesses. The training budget fits this mold: murky, extravagant, and politically convenient.

Rallying Cry: Seize Davao’s Soul Back

This scandal demands action, not just anger.

Forensic Audit: Davao must launch a forensic audit of the P354 million training budget, tracing every peso to its recipient. Transparency is a right, not a privilege.
Citizen Oversight: Create citizen oversight panels, including PWDs and flood victims, to vet future budgets. No more backroom deals.
Voter Action: Punish fiscal betrayal at the polls. Back candidates like Al-ag who challenge the machine, not those hiding behind smears and seminars.

Jessa’s wheelchair shouldn’t be a fantasy while bureaucrats feast at trainings nobody needs. Davao deserves better. Its people—flood-soaked, crutch-bound, forsaken—deserve a city that fights for them. The election looms. So does the reckoning.

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