CTO solicited to help trace market records

WITH almost all of its records destroyed by the fire that hit Unit III of the Carbon Public Market, Cebu City Councilor Alvin Arcilla said they will ask the help of the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) to identify the vendors who were not able to renew their business permits before the blaze.

In a phone interview with Cebu Daily News, Arcilla said records from the CTO will determine who among the 3,000 vendors in Cebu City were able to renew their market lease permits for 2019.

Arcilla, Deputy Mayor for Agriculture and chairperson of the council’s committee on markets, also said as soon as they can account for the records pertaining to market permits, they may be able to resume the renewal process.

“We have to reconcile all records starting with the documents from the treasurer’s office. Some of the vendors already paid for the permits while some are yet to pay,” said Arcilla.

“We’re going to trace every document until such time we can determine the vendors who already paid for the renewal and those who haven’t. And then we’re going to resume the renewal of market permits,” he added.

City Hall will send notices to those who have not paid their renewal permits, Arcilla said.

The office of the City Market Authority, which is located at the second floor of Unit III was totally burned down and its employees were able to save only a handful of documents as the fire spread quickly.

Most of the documents were also water-logged and have been placed at a vacant lot at the South Road Properties (SRP) to dry.