Heavy and loaded

A jeep loaded with students who badly need to go home...for free. They seem happy to see us, so they waved back.

Mati City’s Modern Public Market

We were in Davao Oriental for a video production. We needed a market scene and chose the Mati Public Market which is strategically located in the town of Madang, City of Mati.

The newly-built modern public market of Mati City.

The facade of the Mati Market from another angle.

A woman in paratrooper army fatigues and a baby enjoying the morning sun at the market.

A child and his dad's favorite belt (?)

By car, you can reach Mati City in three hours or more from the city proper of Davao. The place has a nice sound to it. Mati sounds food to me (although it’s far from being like that) or a beautiful name which I have grown so familiar but cannot exactly know who and why. I kept saying, “Mati, Mati” the first time I set my foot on the city. I learned that the residents of Mati City are called “Matinians”.

It was only last year that Mati was declared a city. This year, along with the celebration of the city’s anniversary, President Macapagal-Arroyo together with the City Mayor innaugurated this modern public market. The newly-built facility is a single storey market built on 1.42 hectare lot that houses more than 600 stalls. The facility is worth P132.78 M and was funded under a loan from ADB.

The public market is the biggest in the province of Davao Oriental.

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