Early beginnings

The island was initially home to the Sama-Bajau people. Later on, Spain managed to conquer the island in the late 1840s when Nueva Vergara (Davao City today) was established.

World War 2

The Pacific War, which happened during World War II, struck the island. Japanese fighter planes bombed the island. Japanese forces occupied the island and forced the people to work for four years until they were expelled by the Allied forces. After the war, infrastructure was built, such as schools, churches, and stores in the area.

Official founding of the municipality

The time came on July 8, 1948, when the entire island itself became part of the newly created municipality of Samal;^[7] it was the official founding of the municipality. Five years later in 1953, the municipality of Babak was created from Samal,^[8] marking the political division of the island between the two municipalities. The island experienced further political division when the municipality of Kaputian was created from the island in 1966.^[9] During this period, the standard of living in these three municipalities became low and extremely rural.

Proposed province

In 1969, a proposal to create the sub-province of Samal was created by Republic Act No. 5999^[10] and covered the area of the present-day city. The act was enacted without President Ferdinand Marcos' approval. However, the sub-province was never inaugurated.

Cityhood

The city was created through Republic Act No. 8471 on January 30, 1998. This act paved the way for the dissolution and merger of the three former municipalities of Samal, Babak, and Kaputian into one local government unit by turning them into districts, now officially named IGaCoS, the Island Garden City of Samal. The first city mayor was Rogelio P. Antalan, who later served for three consecutive terms from 1998 to 2007.

On April 19, 2000, Air Philippines Flight 541 crashed in the city, killing all 131 people on board.^[11]

Hostage crisis

On September 22, 2015, Kjartan Sekkingstad, aged 55, from Sotra, Norway, was abducted by Abu Sayyaf Islamist guerrillas from a high-end tourist resort on Samal Island, along with two Canadian men, John Ridsdel, aged 68, and Robert Hall, aged 67, and a Filipina woman, Marites Flor, Hall's girlfriend.^[12] In April and June 2016, the Canadians were beheaded after ransoms were not paid, and in June 2016 Flor was released. On September 17, 2016, Sekkingstad was released on Jolo island, 600 miles south of Manila after captor Abu Sayyaf received $638,000 in ransom for his release. He was handed over to another rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front. The MNLF was in peace talks with the government and had been working with authorities to secure Sekkingstad's release. It is not known who paid the ransom for Sekkingstad, but it was not the Norwegian government.^[13]

Climate

Barangays

Samal is politically subdivided into 46 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks while some have sitios.

In 1955, the sitios of Mambago, San Isidro, Santo Niño, San Antonio, San Agustin, Dangcaan, Balet, Tambo, Camudmud, and Cogon were converted into barrios of the now-defunct municipality of Babak.^[15]

Agriculture

The city's economy depends greatly on its agricultural production. Copra, mango, corn, vegetables, citrus, and fish are the major products of the island. Livestock production is also a major product with Davao City as the primary market. In addition, rice is also produced in the barangays of Libuak in Babak District and Aumbay in Peñaplata District.

Tourism

The city is the largest resort city in the country. It has good beaches and houses many beach resorts. It has also numerous marine reefs and tranquil waters that lure tourists to visit them, especially on Talikud Island. There are 34 registered resorts with a combined capacity of 1,000 rooms in the city.^[27] The most popular of these is the Pearl Farm Beach Resort, owned by Ms. Universe 1973 winner Margarita Moran. Because of these, the Department of Tourism named it one of the best visiting islands in Mindanao and currently one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the country. Thus, tourism is the main source of income in the city. Biggest taxes are imposed to tourism and resort industry.

There are three main festivals held annually in the city, namely:

• Kabasan Festival, coincides with the founding of Babak municipality every year in May, features bikini open contests, fireworks display, street-dancing and street parties, and motocross events
• White Nights Festival, takes place every two days with Kaputian as the venue, celebrating the city's cultural and historical heritage; and
• Hugyaw Madayaw Festival, a spin-off of Davao's Kadayawan Festival which is also held annually in August, and also an attempt to preserve the diminishing Sama culture in the island.

Monfort Bat Sanctuary, the world's largest fruit bat colony,^[28] is also located in the island.

Fishing

Fishing is also a growing business sector in this city, since the city was situated on the island, it cannot fully complement the demand for meat products imported from other parts of the country, especially in nearby Davao City in the mainland. The city has no both container port and deep-water transport terminal, except for a barge wharf at Babak district, to deliver market products directly to the city, so the city government advocated building fishery complexes across the city to minimize the demand for market products imported to the city. Fish, pearls, and edible crustaceans such as shrimps, prawns, and crabs are the main aquatic consumable products in the city.

Proposed Samal-Davao Bridge

Efforts to link Samal Island to mainland Mindanao via Davao City have been going on for decades. One of the earliest records of government attempts to get the project going is a news item from the Mindanao Times dated January 18, 1979, with the headline titled “Bridge to Link City and Samal”. It was not the first time that such project had been proposed. Several years earlier, talk of a bridge surfaced when an aluminum plant was being planned to be built on Samal Island by an eight-nation consortium of giant corporations.^[6]

Decades later, talks of the proposed project resurfaced notably through informal surveys among both Davao City and Samal Island residents about the bridge with majority (138 out of 150 individuals) said they agreed the construction of the project.^[29] Few years later, 3.98-kilometer bridge, a flagship project under the “Build, Build, Build” program during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, will be hugely funded through a loan agreement with the Chinese government. The project groundbreaking ceremony soon led by Duterte's successor, President Bongbong Marcos who was joined by Duterte's daughter Vice President Sara Duterte and her brother, Rodrigo's son Davao City mayor Baste Duterte.^[30] The project is scheduled to be completed in 2027.^[31]

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