The Venue

There once stood a party place in Davao where locals and visiting guests of the city converge in a night of fun, music and dance from dusk 'till dawn. It is called, and now defunct, The Venue. It was a large, multi-level entertainment area of about 1,200 square meters which can easily hold 1,500 persons at one time. It was a favorite hang-out place at night and a popular venue for live concerts, band performances, big fashion shows, corporate parties, product launches, conventions, national and international billiard competitions and other events that required a huge area. The Venue featured a multi-level dining areas, a big dancing area, nightly entertainment which featured Manila's and Davao's best bands, had state-of-the-art sound and lights system, four themed bars (one was the Espresso Bar of Blugré Café), 24 billiard tables, and the largest Video Wall in Mindanao. 

The Venue opened its doors to the public on November 15, 2000. It was a major project of Holiday Entertainment and Music Corporation, the same owners of Linmarr Davao, and the Holiday Transport Group.

Inside The Venue

The Venue was located close to the corners of Emilio Jacinto Street and Elpidio Quirino Avenue, fronting the Central Bank in the downtown area. At the parking lot were different cafés, cocktail bars and restaurants. It was a place to bee seen, eat and party in the city. 

Bar 1

Bar 1

Cafe Breizh

Rows of bars and restaurants

Space Burger

Huge umbrella

View of Marco Polo Hotel from The Venue

View of Elpidio Quirino Avenue from The Venue

Today, since December 2010, the very corner where The Venue once stood proudly is now a P35.8 million call center facility of Sutherland Philippines - a business process outsourcing (BPO) company based in the United States.

Sutherland Global Services Philippines

Korrokan KTV Resto-Bar

This is the now defunct Korrokan KTV Resto-Bar located at the back parking lot of Victoria Plaza Mall in Bajada, Davao City. It was a first-class KTV restaurant and bar that catered to high-end guests. It was here that I saw high-profile politicians from Manila, Davao City and other parts of Mindanao; visiting government officials from the different agencies; well-known businessmen; local celebrities, etc. However, just like in any similar establishments in Davao City, all are welcome regardless of one’s stature in life. There are no exclusive clubs for the social and economic elite nor are there forbidden ghettos confined to the less fortunate and marginalized. Celebrities and famous people are treated like everyone else. No special treatments for those in powerful positions. Elitism and haughtiness are treated with much disdain in the city. 

Korrokan had about 14 VIP rooms and a common area where the cocktail bar was located. At its peak, there were over 50 PR managers assisting guests and more than 150 women entertainers. Nightly, Korrokan was filled with guests and oftentimes a reservation in advance was necessary to obtain exclusive use of the VIP rooms. It also had a branch along Timog in Quezon City. 

Bar and Common Area

KTVs and Karaoke were such a big hit in the Davao in the late 90s and from early to mid 2000s that everywhere you go in the city, be it in a town fiesta, birthdays, weddings, or simply an afternoon of fun with families, friends, office colleagues and even with neighbors, you will find people holding microphones joyfully singing before a cheering crowd and curious spectators, each one patiently waiting for their turn. But the fad seemed to have gradually subsided, but not totally out. In fact, Korrokan actually just moved to a new location in Ecoland, in a much bigger building with better and added facilities, and renamed it World Palace Business Center. 

World Palace Business Center in Ecoland

Victoria Plaza Mall in Bajada

View of the huge parking area immediately outside Korrokan

Korrokan

Korrokan

Durian Hotel

Durian Hotel

It is with a deep sense of sorrow to see this beautiful 12-storey hotel regrettably neglected and unused for many years considering its very strategic location along one of the city's chief thoroughfares in downtown area and its close proximity to shopping malls, several business and commercial establishments, dining and entertainment areas, and easy of access by all types of transportation. This once elegant but still imposing structure along J. P. Laurel Avenue in Bajada, Davao City, known as the Durian Hotel, would have surely been a big hit among leisure and business travelers to the city. But sadly, the hotel has, for some reason, remained unoccupied to date.

Durian Hotel

The property in which the hotel is situated consists of 15 adjoining commercial lots. The hotel's total aggregate floor area is about 16,500 square meters consisting of three buildings: 

Original Building

The original building is primarily used for commercial purposes. It has a total floor area of 1,762 square meters. The ground floor is where the lobby was located and served as the reception hall of guests, and where two commercial spaces and the hotel parking area are found. The second floor held the administration offices of the hotel, while the third and fifth floors were partitioned into a total of 22 guestrooms. 

Annex Building 

This building has six floors with a total floor area of 4,566 square meters. The basement, ground floor, and second floor were used for parking areas which can accommodate 60 cars. The third and fourth floors were function halls that can each accommodate up to 200 persons, while the fifth floor is where the Grand Ballroom (theater-type function hall) is located. 

Main Hotel 

The main hotel is a 12-storey building with 126 guestrooms, bearing a total floor area of 10,172 square meters, partitioned as follows: 

Basement - Parking area, water boiler, and exhaust fans, 

Ground Floor - Main kitchen, a restaurant, two scenic elevators, and one service elevator, 

Second Floor - Employee cafeteria, stockroom, male/female quarters, employees comfort rooms, locker room, Food and Beverage office, Engineering office, medical clinic, chapel, and two function rooms for 60 persons, 

Third to Eleventh Floors - guestrooms, 

Twelfth Floor - Heroes Bar, Concorde function room with mezzanine, mini gym, swimming pool, 

Roof Deck - Water tank, motor for elevators, and cellsite/office. 

Durian Hotel is about 50 meters Southeast from the corners of J.P. Laurel Avenue and Bacaca Road; some 60 meters Northwest from Victoria Plaza Mall; and approximately a kilometer from the downtown area.

Back view of Durian Hotel from afar

Samal Casino Hotel

Samal Casino Hotel

There used to be a beautiful casino hotel in the southern coast of Kaputian District in Samal Island called Samal Casino Hotel, also known as the Grand Ekran Hotel. I was here on two occasions in 1999: when I investigated the fire loss sustained by portions of the hotel; and the other one was on a social call with an insurance client. The casino hotel then was an impressive structure with first class facilities, complemented by numerous professional staff.

While the structure still exists today, the casino hotel has regrettably remained inoperative since it was forced to cease its operation in 2000 following the Asian financial crisis at that time. Since its closure, there has been serious discussions between the owner, Ekran Berhard of Ekran BHD Malaysia and the city government of Samal to revive the casino hotel considering its operation will generate some 50 million pesos in various taxes, provide job opportunities and boost the tourism industry of Samal. But for some reason, it remains closed to date. 

Samal Casino Resort

Samal Casino Hotel was established under the BIMP-EAGA initiative between Malaysia and the Philippines. BIMP-EAGA is an acronym for Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines - East ASEAN Growth Area. It is a subregional economic cooperation initiative between the member countries whose aim is to accelerate economic development through increase in trade, tourism, and investments, inside and outside the subregion by facilitating the free movement of people, goods, services, and the best use of common infrastructure and natural resources involving the governments of the member countries and its private sector. It was was founded and launched in Davao City in 1994.

The casino hotel was Ekran Berhad’s contribution to the East ASEAN Growth Area promoted by private business chambers in the region. It occupies a total land area of 80 hectares out of the 250 hectare property. The cost of development reached $250 million when the casino hotel was completed in 1997 and was valued at 2 billion pesos when it ceased operation in 2000.

Over-the-water Deluxe Rooms

The casino hotel was designed in Malaysian-inspired architecture consisting of 245 luxuriously designed suites of seven different room types: 1 Presidential Suite; 10 Executive Suites; 30 Junior Suites; 18 Over-the-water Deluxe; 16 On-Shore-Deluxe; 26 Inland Deluxe and 144 Terrace Standard, complete with individually-controlled central air-conditioning, private baths and showers, satellite television sets, refrigerators and mini-bars, telephone facilities for IDD/NDD, coffee and tea making facilities, and hair dyers. The facilities were world-class, having facilities for a casino, a souvenir shop, a business center, a playroom, a medical clinic, a gym, and an outdoor swimming pool, as well as services for foreign currency exchange, airport transfers, safety deposit boxes, same-day laundry and dry cleaning, massage and sauna, regular boat shuttle service and Vingcard lock system. The casino hotel also had facilities for island hopping, spelunking or cave exploration, scuba diving, jet skiing, lawn tennis, sport climbing, table tennis, basketball, mountaineering or trekking, billiards,  beach volleyball, mountain biking, water basketball and volleyball, kayaking, weight training, snorkeling, and fishing.

For dining and cocktail, the casino hotel had the Kaputiat Café and the Spices Specialty Restaurant that both served local and International dishes a la carte as well as buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner; the Casino Lounge; the Exotika in a jungle-bar setting that served food and cocktail drinks with live band entertainment amid tropical interiors; the Dee n’ Sip Poolside Bar - a sunken bar that served cocktails poolside; and the Lobby Lounge where light snacks and drinks were served. The hotel also had convention and banquet facilities that can accommodate up to 3,000 participants.  

On-shore Deluxe Rooms

Samal Casino Hotel is situated in Kaputian District of the Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS) in Davao del Norte. It is accessible via a 30-minute ferry boat ride from Davao City.

Samal Casino Hotel in Kaputian District of Samal Island

Ker Mansion

Ker Mansion

This was the old mansion of Robert Ker that used to stand elegantly on the highest elevated ground near the corner of J. P. Laurel Avenue and Buhangin Road in Bajada, Davao City. It was a renowned landmark because of its historical value and significance in the early years of the city when Davao became the center of abaca production in the Philippines in the 1920s largely due to Ker.

Robert Ker was a businessman from Scotland who came to Davao in the 1800s and established his abaca plantation and trading business called Ker and Company. He purchased a piece of land and built the white European-style mansion which became his residence and base of operation for many years. The land was verdant with old acacia trees and the mansion was perched on the highest vantage point of the property giving him a 360-degree view of his vast abaca plantation in the area. Ker leased the neighboring lands and further expanded his plantation, while farmers in the community started to grow abaca for him.

However, Ker ceased his abaca operations in 1961 but continued his distribution business and the Mansion was then used as residence of his company's branch manager in Davao up to the time it was sold to Camella in March 2009.

The mansion was also used by the Japanese Imperial forces as headquarters during World War II.

The Ker Mansion at the corner of J. P. Laurel Avenue and Buhangin Road in Bajada

Today, while this old British Colonial-inspired structure is still there, much of it had been renovated and converted into a clubhouse now named Wakefield Manor when Camella Communities, a local developer in Davao, bought the 2.8 hectare property and converted the land into a pine estate condominium community called Camella Northpoint.

Wakefield Manor Clubhouse of Camella Northpoint

View from the Mansion

While Robert Ker was a Scot by birth, he is fondly remembered by Davaoeños, most especially the descendants of his many loyal employees who told stories of him bestowing his land to their families. This bond was strengthened by the citation given by the National Historical Commission to Ker and Company as one of the top 10 oldest companies in the Philippines. 

Both Ker and his once old mansion remain an indelible part of Davao’s rich history: Ker, as one of its foreign inhabitants who became purveyors of commercial development; and the Mansion which, for  several decades, was an imposing sight that once stood magnificently in all its former grandeur - a silent witness to Davao’s transformation, from its humble plantation years to the bustling metropolis that it is now fast becoming.