Unit 2 Carbon Market rebuilding underway

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City Market Authority is reviving the plan to reconstruct the building at the Unit 2 Carbon Market that was razed by fire in 1998.

Market administrator Raquel Arce said that this shall be one of the priorities of the Market Authority within the three years of Mayor Michael Rama's first term in office.

Arce said that the building will be operation within one to two years. Initial works have already started including the retrieval of the previous building plan from the city engineering office and the preparation of the new program of works and estimates that attunes to the prevailing market price of building materials and other resources necessary for the reconstruction.

Arce said that what is important is to be able to start the preparation this year before the bidding process to put an end to the long wait on when the city gov-ernment will rebuild the market.

It was first proposed and budgeted during the administration of former mayor Alvin Garcia. Garcia awarded the P144.9-million contract to Young Builders Corp. to rehabilitate the market but the contract was rescinded later by then mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Osmeña reportedly did not approve the design of the building so he opted to build a ramp from F. Escaño Street to F. Gonzales Street with a contract price of P135 million to decongest the traffic in Carbon area.

But the ramp project also did not push through because the contractor, this time WT Construction, asked for the adjustment of the contract price since they were deemed to incur losses due to the increase in the price of building materials.

The construction by WT was delayed several times because Young Builders Corp refused to vacate the area unless the city pays them P6 million as additional to the down payment which covers the initial work done by the company.

Illegal settlers also started occupying the area. The case of Young Builders versus the city government is still pending in court.

Arce said that during their strategic planning recently, they only agreed to the revival of the plan to rebuild the unit 2 of Carbon Market but as to the ramp, it remains to be seen.

"It will also depend later on the available budget," she said.

Other than the rehabilitation of Carbon, City Administrator Jose Mari Poblete, who heads the Market Authority, said that they will also revisit the city's market policies since they have policies that do not address current real problems at the market like in Carbon.

"Ang ato man gud policies are generic, so kung naa'y specific problem sa market, ang solusyon, analogous cases. We will conduct benchmarking activities sa other markets or we can learn from the policies in other countries to ensure the smooth management of our markets here in Cebu City," Poblete said.

Arce said that Rama ordered for zero growth of ambulant vendors especially in the Carbon Market. They are currently conducting an inventory of all ambulant vendors not just in Carbon but also in other markets within the city.

They will also strictly implement the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and vice versa policy for vendors so there will be no overlapping. This policy allows day vendors to open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. while night shift vendors may only open from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. (FREEMAN)