City market execs eye crowd control at Carbon Public Market as Holy Week nears

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Cebu City government is now gearing up for the possible influx of marketgoers at the Carbon Public Market as the Holy Week nears.

And to prevent a huge crowd from gathering, officials from the city’s Market Operations Division (MOD) are planning to cordon some areas at the public market to especially regulate the flow of shoppers.

Irvin Caballes, MOD head, told reporters that their office has conducted meetings with Carbon Market vendors and law enforcers as part of their preparations for this year’s Holy Week celebration.

Caballes said that among the suggestions raised was the need to cordon portions of the market to ensure that minimum health standards are observed.

“In the event crowd will grow huge and become uncontrollable, we are planning to put cordons in some areas [at the public market],” said Caballes.

Aside from this, market officials are also mulling on the need to impose crowd limit at the entrance.

“If we cannot control the people coming in, then it would be a really big problem for us to enforce health protocols (inside Carbon market),” he added.

During the height of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, photos and videos of buyers crowding the Carbon Public Market, with little to no regard of minimum health standards, to purchase ingredients for binignit, a Lenten staple, went viral on social media.

Caballes said they would not want a repeat of the incident this year.

To avoid the same from happening, Caballes is urging marketgoers to plan their trips to Carbon Public Market to avoid from joining the Holy Week crowd.

“We have also advised vendors to, as much as possible, pack the ingredients so customers can just buy them immediately and lessen their time to stay in a store,” he said.

The country will be celebrating Holy Week this year from March 28 to April 3. /dcb