Dangwa

Named after a transportation company owned by incumbent Benguet Rep. Samuel Dangwa, the tranco at the left end of the street carries fresh flowers from the chilly mountains of Baguio twice everyday to the “Dangwa” market in Manila. What once was an eight-vendor roadway in the 80’s has transformed into a three paved block of 100 stalls. “A far cry from what Dos Castillas used to look like,” Lubania Lantok, an old resident, said of the street. “Back then, there were only eight flower vendors selling flowers here, and they all lived right here in Dos Castillas.” In 2006, Mayor Lito Atienza declared Dos Castillas as the “flower market of Manila,” making the place more consumer-friendly by installing large tulip-shaped lampposts in the middle of a brick tiled road covering two blocks of Dos Castillas street to provide customers with ample space to move between stalls without the inconvenience of crossing streets. After World War II crippled the gold mining industry in Benguet, the country’s gold production capital, many of the locals turned to agriculture and floriculture.

The Dangwa Transportation Company and the government-owned Benguet Auto Lane (BAL) became the main support facility to the mining areas and to the whole Mountain Province. Owned by 72-year-old Samuel Martin Dangwa, a Kanakaney, or a native of the highlands of Benguet, Dangwa Tranco’s first years of operation transported vegetables (strawberries, beans, potatoes, and carrots) grown by Benguet farmers to Manila everyday.