Davao Stamp Collectors

Yes, I was a member of the Davao Stamp Collectors.

Its name and membership card were patterned after the Philippine Stamp Collectors--even the logo, unknowingly, of Spenders got reproduced on the card!

Our organizational meeting was held on February 14, 1982.

Lawyer Virginia Europa (later a judge in the Regional Trial Court) had written to me on Feb. 8 asking if I could help her in forming the club. She said my name was given to her by Mandy Labayen of Philippine Stamp Collectors, so I suspect she had also written to the other two PSC members of Davao (Felisa Ong and Jerome Teodoro).

The meeting was held in the afternoon at the EDI Law Office (at the back of Mercury Drug) on San Pedro Street. About 20 collectors came, all eager to be charter members of the club to be called Davao Stamp Collectors. There was raffle at the end, with everyone taking home a philatelic item. Courtesy of our club adviser, former Davao City mayor Rodolfo Sarenas (1953-54), who had been a member of the Asociacion Filatelica de Filipinas, the subsequent raffles were something to look forward to in our meetings.

For the first and second regular meetings (April 4 and May 30), the venue was the same. Meetings were later conducted at the Art Centre Davao on Magallanes Street after Dr. Nicanor del Rosario Jr. enlisted as a member (he had his dental clinic inside the art gallery).

Copies of the 1982 Philippine Postage Stamp Catalogue and the newly published NU Stamp Album (for Republic issues) were made available to members. Later, at the Art Centre, packets of used Republic stamps in glassines were sold. I was told these came from the Inductivo brothers in Manila.

One time a fellow PSC member, who was on his way back home to General Santos City from Manila, dropped by during a meeting of the Davao Stamp Collectors. He said he pays for his transportation fare by selling stamps.

Of course, the highlight of the club's first year of existence was the holding of DAVPEX '83. This was supported by the Bureau of Posts in Manila who sent personnel from the Stamp and Philatelic Division. I remember two names: Adelina Argente and stamp designer Antonio Chuidian Jr. (who revealed to us that he was the model of the stamp design for the Government Employees Association Week issued in 1961--the set of two diamond-shaped stamps).

There was a student from the University of Southeastern Philippines who became a member of the club after DAVPEX '83. I think he was forming a stamp club in his university but I lost track of this activity.

In March 1985, Gene Garrett of the US wrote a letter asking for help in obtaining a particular Japanese occupation cover, with a Davao City cancel, for his collection. Happily, Dr. Nick del Rosario had that cover, and two others with Davao cancels, too.

On April 22, 1985, I said goodbye to Davao City.

I'll post the first year history of DSC next!