Pasonanca Park
Pasonanca Park-is renowned in the
Philippines as a
tourist attraction and popular site for youth citizenship training and for the holding of regional seminars, conferences, conventions, outdoor campings, or Boy Scout and Girl Scout jamborees. It is located in
Zamboanga City about 7 km. away from the city center. To those who come from the North, Pasonanca Park is known as the "Little
Baguio of the South" - perhaps awed and inspired by its cleanliness, coolness and wholesome atmosphere, or its being nestled on a height surrounded by verdant hills and mountains. This Park won First Prize and was cited as the Number One Garden of the Philippines, 1959 parks, plazas and gardens contest covering the entire country, and has always been the favorite week-end resort of the city people.
Construction of the park began in 1912 by
Gen. John J. "Blackjack" Pershing, Governor of the so-called
Moro Province at the time, and completed during the administration of
Hon. Frank W. Carpenter, Governor, Department of Mindanao and Sulu (1914-1920), a strictly civilian regime under the Americans which replaced the Moro Province. Mr.
Thomas Hanley, a parksman, came here in 1912 from the States at the instance of Gov. Pershing to serve the same post at Pasonanca, this city, and was responsible for the original lay-out of the park.
It is refreshingly cool, being situated on an elevated area, some 500 feet above sea level, and lorded over by verdant mountains and rolling hills. The Park has three swimming pools, one for children with concrete slides (Wee-Wee Pool), a second natatorium for professional swimmers, and a third looks like a natural swimming hole, bordered around by ferns and other greeneries, the oldest of the three pools, having been constructed during the time of Gov. Carpenter and Parksman Hanley in 1916-1917, with cool and crystal-clear water flowing into and out of it twenty-four hours a day, directly from the tall mountains a mile away to the North. The Park also has a boy-girl-scout campsite, an amphitheatre, a convention center, and many other attractions.
Source: 1987 Golden Jubilee Souvenir Program
