EDGE

Aside from the military hospital across the Philippine Constabulary barracks (now Camp Domingo Leonor), Davao did not have its own sickbay until 1908 when Davao Mission Hos-pital (now Brokenshire) was opened under the directorship of Dr. Charles T. Sibley.

The hospital, managed by a Protestant sect, was “a small, private, twenty-bed, bungalow hospital in Davao, maintained by the contributions of a group of philanthropic gentlemen of New York, which has been of signal benefit to the people of that district.”

It was not until December 20, 1917 that the Davao Public Hospital, a state sanatorium, was put on track, initially addressing minor ailments. The next year, due to the influx of mi-grants, it further raised its medical services while the concrete 50-bed hospital was still under construction.