Panabo | |
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| City of Panabo | |
 Panabo City downtown at night with its newly established LGU-owned Market Complex | |
 Flag  Seal | |
| Nickname: Banana Capital of the Philippines | |
| Motto: "Service to Panaboans, Service to God!" | |
| Anthem: Panabo Hymn | |
 Map of Davao del Norte with Panabo highlighted | |
 Interactive map of Panabo | |
.svg)  Panabo Location within thePhilippines | |
| Coordinates:7°18′05″N125°40′51″E / 7.301417°N 125.680967°E /7.301417; 125.680967 | |
| Country | Philippines |
| Region | Davao Region |
| Province | Davao del Norte |
| District | 2nd district |
| Founded | July 19, 1949 |
| Cityhood | March 31, 2001 |
| Barangays | 40 (seeBarangays) |
| Government | |
| • Type | Sangguniang Panlungsod |
| • City Mayor | Jose E. Relampagos (PFP) |
| • Vice Mayor | Franklin D. Gentiles (PFP) |
| • Representative | JM Lagdameo (PFP) |
| • City Council | Members
|
| • Electorate | 131,807 voters (2025) |
| Area | |
• Total | 251.23 km2 (97.00 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 74 m (243 ft) |
| Highest elevation | 555 m (1,821 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| Population (2024 census)[3] | |
• Total | 211,242 |
| • Density | 840.83/km2 (2,177.7/sq mi) |
| • Households | 51,097 |
| Demonym | Panaboan |
| Economy | |
| • Income class | 1st city income class |
| • Poverty incidence | 18.46 |
| • Revenue | ₱ 1,816 million (2022) |
| • Assets | ₱ 5,177 million (2022) |
| • Expenditure | ₱ 1,137 million (2022) |
| • Liabilities | ₱ 1,606 million (2022) |
| Service provider | |
| • Electricity | Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) |
| • Water | Panabo Water District (joint venture withPrimeWater) |
| • Telecommunications | Converge ICT Dito Telecommunity Globe Telecom PLDT |
| • Cable TV | Panabo Satellite Cable Television |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (PST) |
| ZIP code | 8105 |
| PSGC | |
| IDD : area code | +63 (0)84 |
| Native languages | Ata Manobo Davawenyo Cebuano Kalagan Tagalog |
| Website | www |
Panabo, officially theCity of Panabo (Cebuano:Dakbayan sa Panabo;Filipino:Lungsod ng Panabo), is acomponent city in theprovince ofDavao del Norte,Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 211,242 people.[5] It is also known for being the “Banana Capital of the Philippines” for its vast banana plantations.
Panabo is the second most populous city in Davao del Norte (afterTagum) and it is also part ofDavao Metropolitan Area as it shares borders withDavao City. It has an area of 25,123 hectares (62,080 acres). The Panabo City Hall is located about 2.23 kilometers from its boundary with Davao City.
The name Panabo originated from the phrase "pana-sa-boboy" where "pana" means "arrow", the tool which the original inhabitants of the place, theAetas, use when hunting wild animals for food.[6]
Originally the rich lowland of what today is Panabo was inhabited by a group of natives calledAetas. These people led nomadic life and lived by hunting. With the use of their most essential tool, the bow and arrow—"pana-sa-boboy" as they call it—they hunted for food which primarily consisted of rootcrops and meat of wild boars.[6]
Settlers and pioneers from theVisayas andLuzon started to flock the place during the early 1900s in search of a new life in the region. When the first batch of settlers arrived on the place, in what is now the urban core of the city, they found out that it was already a thriving community, and thus called itTaboan, or trading center. Feeling alienated with the massive influx of settlers in the region, the Aeta natives moved further into the hinterlands to the west, thus ensuring that the settler inhabitants become the majority of the population. The new inhabitants started to name the place as Panabo, named after the bow and arrow that the Aeta natives always carry.
Panabo, until then only a mere barangay ofTagum, then known as Magugpo during that time, became a town on July 19, 1949, through Presidential Proclamation No. 236 of the PresidentManuel A. Roxas.
The Tagum Agricultural Development Company, otherwise known as TADECO, was founded on December 20, 1950, in the town of Panabo.[7] It was the birth of the world's largestCavendish banana plantation that saw the mass employment of the locals seeking for jobs, and the start of unprecedented growth of the town as even larger throngs of Visayan migrants settled on the town eager to join the plantation's workforce. Large areas of forests were cleared to make way for the banana trees under TADECO. The town of Panabo grew both in economic terms and population as decades passed since the founding of TADECO and numerous businesses were then set up locally, until the conditions finally warranted for its conversion into a city.
The local government unit of Panabo was created into a component city of Davao del Norte by virtue of Republic Act No. 9015[8] and ratified by the residents in a plebiscite held on March 31, 2001. However, its official existence as a municipal corporation took effect on with the appointment of new set of officials.
The city of Panabo has a total land area of 251.23 km2. It was bordered by the shores ofDavao Gulf to the east, byDavao City to its west and south, and some of the municipalities ofDavao del Norte in the north. The western part of the city featured hills while the rest were flatlands.
| Climate data for Panabo City | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 29 (84) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 31 (88) | 31 (88) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) | 30 (86) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 22 (72) | 22 (72) | 22 (72) | 22 (72) | 23 (73) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 24 (75) | 23 (73) | 22 (72) | 23 (73) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 98 (3.9) | 86 (3.4) | 91 (3.6) | 83 (3.3) | 133 (5.2) | 158 (6.2) | 111 (4.4) | 101 (4.0) | 94 (3.7) | 117 (4.6) | 131 (5.2) | 94 (3.7) | 1,297 (51.2) |
| Average rainy days | 16.4 | 14.3 | 16.3 | 18.5 | 25.3 | 25.0 | 23.8 | 21.9 | 20.8 | 24.4 | 24.3 | 18.7 | 249.7 |
| Source: Meteoblue(modeled/calculated data, not measured locally)[9] | |||||||||||||
Panabo is politically subdivided into 40barangays.[10] Each barangay consists ofpuroks while some havesitios.
Quezon was formerly the sitio of Cabili; it became a barrio in 1957.[11]
Population census of Panabo | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source:Philippine Statistics Authority[12][13][14][15] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Poverty incidence of Panabo
Source:Philippine Statistics Authority[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
Being an agro-industrial city, Panabo is known as the "Banana Capital of the Philippines" due to numerous banana plantations scattered throughout the city. In fact, Panabo is the home of the world's biggest banana plantation, which is owned by the Tagum Agricultural Development Company (TADECO), which covers around 6,900 hectares of banana fields and produce millions of boxes of export-quality bananas annually. The city itself cultivated 40% of its land or around 10,000 hectares into planting export-qualityCavendish bananas. Thus, banana cultivation and exportation are the main economic lifeblood of the city.
There are two privately owned port facilities in the city, which enabled them to export various fruits, such as bananas, mangoes, papayas, and pineapples, to countries likeJapan,South Korea,China, and countries as far in theMiddle East and theEuropean Union.
Public infrastructure includes the Freedom Park which features a unique banana inspired fountain sculpted by the world class artistKublai Millan. The Panabo Multi-Purpose Tourism, Cultural and Sports Center, located beside the City Hall is also a public infrastructure, thegymnasium accommodates an estimated ten-thousand people and also serves as playing venue of thePhilippine Basketball Association as well as serving concerts for the city.
Panabo is served by the 6-laneMaharlika Highway and is a highway road junction heading to the TADECO banana plantation as well as to other parts ofDavao del Norte and the northernmost areas ofDavao City. Tricycles andjeepneys are the main mode of transportation in the city, while passenger buses and public utility vans serve overland routes within and outside the city.
A memorandum of agreement betweenUP Los Baños College of Agriculture and ANFLOCOR was signed for the establishment of UP Professional School for Agriculture and the Environment (UP PSAE) which will be UPLB's extension campus in Panabo City.[24][25][26] In addition,UP Mindanao will also collaborate on some courses and programs to be offered.[27]
Places adjacent to Panabo | |
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