‘Ukay-ukay’ mountain rises in Cordova

bargain. Residents looking for cheap clothing, beddings, curtains and other Textile products climb the heap of ukay-ukay dumped in a construction yard in barangay Ibabao, Cordova town. (CDN PHOTO/ NORMAN V. MENDOZA)

For over a month now, people have been coming in droves to climb  a mountain of used clothing  dumped in a construction yard in Cordova town in Mactan.

The pile reaches  15 feet high made up of   used garments,  bedsheets and curtains  sold cheap for   P5 to P25.

Eva Dayday,  35, of  barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City, came to Cordova yesterday with her neighbors and spent the whole day rummaging through the mountain of used items.

At first clothes there were  sold by 100-kilo bundles.  Traders came to buy them wholesale, but now the area is open to per-piece-buyers.

The  used clothing were  originally stocked at a warehouse  owned by Mactan Land Pearl City in the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Lapu-Lapu City. The owner reportedly sold the building and the used clothing inside it to a businessman based in Cagayan De Oro City for P3 million. But the businessman only bought P1.3-million worth of  used clothing. The rest was bought by Virlo Construction Development Corp. which is selling  the used clothing in their yard in barangay Ibabao, Cordova.

Cris Vincent Roldan, the cashier, said Virlo Construction bought the used clothing in November and transferred them to  this yard because the building in MEPZ was being renovated. They donated 500 bundles to survivors of supertyphoon Yolanda  through the Department of Social Welfare and Development 7. About  25 bundles were also donated to the earthquake victims in Bohol.