Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella visits the Dalaguete Town Market Trading Post to get insights as the city plans to build its own Bagsakan Center at the Cebu City North Reclamation Area. | Photo Courtesy of Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government is planning to build a Bagsakan or Trading post at the North Reclamation Area (NRA) in partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Mayor Edgardo Labella confirmed this plan on November 25, 2020, in a phone interview as he conducted a site visit at the Mantalongon Trading Post in Dalaguete Town, in the southern part of Cebu.
Labella said that the DA has allocated P14 million for this regional trading post that should be where all goods coming into Cebu to be distributed to the markets will pass through.
The mayor said that the city government will pattern the Bagsakan Center to that in Dalaguete because the trading post there has been long established and the “system works.”
Engineer Joel Baclayon said the city government will be working with the Mantalongon trading post to build a system for the regional trading post.
The Bagsakan Trading Center is expected to have from 1,000 to 2,000 square meters with a cold, wet, and dry storage, and a weighing area where all goods will be monitored by the trading post personnel.
This will also assure that all goods are weighed and priced according to the standards of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and that all goods are legal as well.
Baclayon added the Bagsakan will cover the regional trades so that there would be no need to flock to the Carbon Market to buy fresh produce. This will also allow better chances for the city’s mountain barangays to easily access the Bagsakan Center since it is closer to the mountain barangay main road.
“It is very necessary because we don’t have a facility for perishable goods. If we have the bagsakan, we will have a component storage to store these goods. In time, we will have a facility where we can get enough supply in times of disasters like a pandemic. It is accessible to all customers, the price is standard, it is sufficient and available,” said Baclayon.
The construction of the Bagsakan Center is expected to finish within six months, if it starts construction by the end of 2020.
Labella hopes that the project can jumpstart soon as the Trading Post would greatly improve the market monitoring and regulation of the city government. /rcg