Panabo

About Panabo

Panabo, officially the City of Panabo, is a component city in the province of Davao del Norte, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 211,242 people. It is also known for being the “Banana Capital of the Philippines” for its vast banana plantations.

Panabo is the second most populous city in Davao del Norte (after Tagum) and it is also part of Davao Metropolitan Area as it shares borders with Davao City. It has an area of 25,123 hectares (62,080 acres). The Panabo City Hall is located about 2.23 kilometers from its boundary with Davao City.

The name Panabo originated from the phrase "pana-sa-boboy" where "pana" means "arrow", the tool which the original inhabitants of the place, the Aetas, use when hunting wild animals for food.

Originally the rich lowland of what today is Panabo was inhabited by a group of natives called Aetas. These people led nomadic life and lived by hunting. With the use of their most essential tool, the bow and arrow—"pana-sa-boboy" as they call it—they hunted for food which primarily consisted of rootcrops and meat of wild boars.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.