Mati, Davao Oriental

Mati is the only city in, and the capital of, the Province of Davao Oriental, Philippines, located on the southeastern side of Mindanao. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 126,143 people. Residents of Mati are called Matinians.

History

Mati comes from the Mandayan word Maa-ti which refers to the town's creek that easily dries up even after heavy rain. Pioneer settlers were tribes Kalagan, Mandayan, and Maranao which carried strong Arabic and Indo-Malayan influences.

Captain Prudencio Garcia, the pioneer political-military head in 1861, and his comrade Juan Nazareno founded Mati and two other towns in Davao Oriental. By 1903, Mati was declared a municipality by virtue of Act No. 21. By 1907, Act No. 189 further reaffirmed the establishment of its local government. Bonifacio Serrano was the first appointed mayor while the first elected mayor was Patricio Cunanan in 1923. Mati became the capital of Davao Oriental since 1967.

The Japanese Imperial forces landed in town and occupied most of eastern Davao region in 1942. Mati was liberated in 1945 by the Allied Philippine Commonwealth troops of the 6th, 10th, 101st, 102nd, 103rd, 104th, 106th, 107th and 110th Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army, 10th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary and the Davaoeño guerrilla units. Mati celebrated its grand centennial in 2003.

Cityhood issues

On June 20, 2007, the Commission on Elections officially proclaimed the ratification of Republic Act 9408 converting the Municipality of Mati into a component city.

There were 18,267 actual voters out of the 51,287 registered voters in 26 villages and 266 polling precincts during the June 18 plebiscite. Final tabulation showed Yes got 18,267 votes while No garnered only 846.

However, Mati recently lost its cityhood, along with 15 other cities, after the Supreme Court of the Philippines granted a petition filed by the League of Cities of the Philippines, and declared the cityhood law (RA 9389) which allowed the town to acquire its city status, unconstitutional. The said cities, the court ruled, did not meet the requirements for cityhood.

More than a year later, on December 24, 2009, acting on the appeal of the so-called "League of 16 Cities" (an informal group of the sixteen local government units whose cityhood statuses had been reversed), the Supreme Court reversed its earlier ruling as it ruled that "at the end of the day, the passage of the amendatory law (regarding the criteria for cityhood as set by Congress) is no different from the enactment of a law, i.e., the cityhood laws specifically exempting a particular political subdivision from the criteria earlier mentioned. Congress, in enacting the exempting law/s, effectively decreased the already codified indicators."^[7] As such, the cityhood statuses of the said 16 LGUs were effectively restored.

On August 27, 2010, Mati lost its cityhood again. It shares the fate of 15 other cities, after the Supreme Court reinstated a 2008 decision declaring the cityhood laws converting 16 municipalities into cities as “unconstitutional.

A previous law required towns aspiring to become cities to earn at least P100 million annually, which none of the 16 did.

Voting 7-6, with two justices not taking part, the SC reinstated its Nov. 18, 2008 decision declaring as unconstitutional the Republic Acts (RAs) converting 16 municipalities into cities again.

On April 12, 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that Mati and the other 15 municipalities would be turned back into cities even without complying with the P100-million annual income requirement imposed by the Local Government Code.

Developments for 2012

After it reclaimed its cityhood status, the local government of the City of Mati focused on infra and eco-tourism projects in 2012 to give the local economy a boost. The local government also improved its education program with the construction of additional school buildings, allotted a bigger budget for health services, and started a housing project worth P13.5 million in Guang-guang.

Economy

This region is linked to the markets of Mindanao, Malaysia and Indonesia. Most of the local people rely on agriculture and agro-industries for a living. Exports include bananas, pineapples, coconuts and fish. Because of its tropical nature and beaches, tourism is a rapidly growing business. Mining is also a contributor to the city's economy, due to the large deposits of copper in the city outskirts.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mati,_Davao_Oriental