DAVAO CITY – For several years now, the area across the Ateneo de Davao University’s main entrance on Roxas Avenue has been referred to as “Freedom Park” even as elder Dabawenyos say it’s on the other side.
Passed on February 22, 1985 at the height of the protest actions in the city against the Marcos dictatorship, Davao City Council Resolution No. 60, which approved Ordinance No. 23, established a Freedom Park for the people of Davao City to “assemble peacefully” to “air their grievances against the government or any person or entity without securing a permit from the City Government.”
The ordinance also provides that the City of Davao or any of its officers or agents “shall not be liable nor responsible for any criminal act or acts that may be committed by those who participate in the use of the ‘Freedom Park.’”Clifford Park was designated as Davao City’s Freedom Park in February 1985. It is not located between the old Aldevinco Building and the Ateneo de Davao University Grounds.
Elder Dabawenyos, however, continue to refer to Freedom Park at its actual location – what used to be just part of that wide road in 1985, long before traffic islands were constructed and long before Marco Polo hotel was constructed at the corner of CM Recto and Roxas Avenue. Freedom Park has a wide open space and some benches that the public could use to “assemble peacefully” to air their grievances against the government, etc., as the 1985 Resolution 60 and Ordinance 23 had declared.The park was named after American soldier Col. Thomas E. ‘Jock’ Clifford, Jr, who was known as one of the liberators of Davao City during the Japanese occupation in the 1940s. Clifford was killed by Japanese mortar fire days after Davao City’s official liberation.