Franciscan brother Peter Simon Francis Jardinico (center) and five other men remain defiant despite detention in the town jail. They support vendors who are resisting being transferred out of the old Minglanilla market. (CDN PHOTO/ APPLE TAAS)
The Cebu provincial government can only help arrange a dialogue between market vendors who insist on staying in the old market site in Minglanilla and the municipal government who wants them to transfer to the new market complex.
Provincial Information Officer Ethel Natera said a representative of the Minglanilla Market Vendors Association asked Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III to help resolve the market site dispute.
“But that problem directly involves the municipal government and it is their sole responsibility to address their complaints,” Natera told Cebu Daily News.
Six men were arrested during the commotion that broke out at the old Minglanilla public market near the national highway in barangay Poblacion, Ward 2 at 3 p.m. last Friday when an order to vacate was implemented.
All six men including Franciscan brother Peter Simon Francis Jardinico and Sherbie delos Reyes, leader of the Minglanilla Public Market Vendors Multipurpose Cooperative face charges of disobedience and direct assault due to last Friday’s fracas.
No use
Jardinico questioned why nearly 300 police officers were sent to disperse 50 vendors.
The vendors insisted on staying in the old market site that was barricaded with aluminum roof sheets.
“Why did they have to do it at 2 a.m.? When we asked the police chief for the papers he just said it would be of no use,” Jardinico said.
Delos Reyes said the notice to vacate last Aug. 28 was signed by Minglanilla market administrator Cording Mejias but had no signature of the municipal legal officer.
“Last July 1 we filed an Appeal for Retention with the Ombudsman-Visayas which was later forwarded to the Capitol last July 15. Included in the appeal was that the local government should make public utility vehicles (PUVs) available to the site and that security and the old market building’s stability be checked,” delos Reyes said.
The new market site is at the back of a complex that also houses the old market area.
Erlinda Cabalan, 1 59-year-old vendor, said they prefer the old market site because it is accessible to customers.
“I have less sales in the next site since this place is interior and too far from the highway,” she said in Cebuano.
Cabalan and 48-year-old Malik Aboto, president of the Minglanilla Muslim Vendors Association, said the police confiscated their products in last Friday’s commotion and didn’t return them.
The old Minglanilla market, which was barricaded with aluminum roof sheets. (CDN PHOTO/ APPLE TAAS)