SAMAL ISLAND, Davao — My first trip to Davao was supposed to be a business trip. It ended with cliff diving, ferry rides and a realization that not every place needs to become a city to become world-class.

Samal Island sits just minutes away from mainland Davao. From the water, you can still see the skyline, the cranes, the high-rises slowly reshaping the city. Yet the moment the boat cuts through the channel toward the island, it feels like you have traveled somewhere far more remote.

The only way to reach Samal today is through a ferry or private boat, though the ongoing Davao-Samal Bridge project is expected to eventually connect the island directly to the mainland. Discovery Samal, the five-star resort where I stayed, even has its own dock and private transfer boats for guests arriving from Davao City.

And yet despite the luxury, the island’s strongest asset is not what was built on it, but what was preserved around it.

This was only my second time in Mindanao, the first being a trip earlier this year to Siargao. Both places share something rare in modern tourism: they allow nature to remain the centerpiece.

That idea becomes even more apparent at Samal itself. The resort embraces a striking brutalist design language — massive black structures rising behind thick greenery and coastal cliffs. On paper, the contrast should not work. But somehow it does.

Pitch-black architecture stands quietly behind open spaces, trees and the sea, proving that modernity and nature do not always have to compete. If done right, they can coexist without one overpowering the other.

That balance became even clearer standing on the cliffs before my first cliff dive. The water below was untouched, the city skyline still faintly visible in the distance. It felt modern without losing its rawness.

The Philippines often treats development and urbanization as interchangeable. Samal quietly argues otherwise.

‘You do not always need to flatten landscapes, overcrowd shorelines, or turn every destination into another business district to attract people. Sometimes the better approach is simply building around what is already beautiful.’

You do not always need to flatten landscapes, overcrowd shorelines, or turn every destination into another business district to attract people. Sometimes the better approach is simply building around what is already beautiful.

The trip also turned out productive professionally. DAILY TRIBUNE received both the Top Coverage Award and the Top Social Media Post Award during the event held in Discovery Samal by Epson Philippines.