Colon Street night market. | CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines–The streets in downtown Cebu City will be empty of street vendors and bazaars starting Friday night, July 5, 2019, as Mayor Edgardo Labella temporarily suspended the operations of the night market until further notice.
Labella said on Friday afternoon that he wants the collection of the fees/rent of the night market vendors, who are paying for their space in Colon Street and other streets in the downtown Cebu City, to be systemised first before allowing them to continue with their operations.
The mayor said that he needs to make sure that no one can take advantage of the night market activities.
“I will look into these reports of individuals or entities that are taking advantage of the night market,” said Labella in Cebuano.
Read more: Night market in downtown Cebu City temporarily suspended
A market vendor, who requested anonymity, told CDN Digital that some people collect additional fees from them on top of the required permit from the city government.
Labella said there were also reports of certain entities collecting from the vendors and not remitting the collections to the city.
The City Transportation Office (CTO) is also going to give its own insight in the formation of a new system in order to make sure the night market will not cause traffic congestion in the downtown area.
Furthermore, Labella will be proposing to the street vendors that they will all be provided a spot in the night market if they agree that no street vendor will sell on the sidewalks in the mornings.
However, this proposal will have to go through a legal process. This is why he directed the City Legal Office to study this proposal.
But while Labella is still working to improve the system with the night market, no vendors will be allowed to sell in the streets for the meantime.
Public Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (Probe) Team head, Raquel Arce, said at least 300 vendors will be affected by the suspension.
She urged the vendors to simply follow the mandate so that their carts will not be confiscated if found they are found selling at night along the downtown streets.
Arce assured that once the mayor has met the vendors, the night market will soon be returned.
Two women-vendors who have been selling at the night market since 2007 were surprised by the mayor’s decision and were worried of how long the suspension will take.
Sisters-in-law, Junayna and Omen Hadjijalere, said that selling in the market has always been their main source of income.
“We are really hoping that Mayor Labella would hasten making his decision because every day that it takes him to decide means another day for us to go hungry,” said Omen.
Junayna, who is on her final trimester of pregnancy, said she really needs to sell in order to provide for her baby. /bmjo