Markets improvement to cost P58M

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City market administrator has proposed at least six projects amounting to P58 million to improve the conditions of the markets in the city.

Raquel Arce said her proposal was already submitted to assistant city administrator for economic enterprise management Rene Sanapo.

Her proposal includes the re-roofing of Pasil Public Market amounting to P10 million, re-roofing and construction of a perimeter fence of Taboan Public Market with an estimated costs of P8 million and P9.5 million, respectively.

Arce’s proposal also include a P10-million perimeter fence for unit 1 of Carbon Market, P4 million installation of trusses and roofing and P4-million installation of stalls in Pardo Public Market, P9.5 million canopy for unit III of Carbon Market and P3-million repair and roofing of T. Padilla Market.

Arce said that money for the projects will be sourced out from the surpluses of the City Market Administrator’s Office in the past years. According to Arce, last year alone they have about P10 million in surplus because they were only able to spend P21 million for the market operations out of the P31 million budget.

The projects aim to improve the conditions in the city markets for better service to the consumers and also to the traders who are mostly residents of Cebu City. This is the direction that Mayor Michael Rama has told the market operation division to take at least for the next three years of his term.

This and other plans were discussed during the strategic planning of the market authority held recently.

The P58 million for the six infrastructure projects in city markets does not include the reconstruction of the unit 2 building of Carbon Market which will be fully realized at most in two years.

The reconstruction of the Unit 2 building is the major project that will be implemented by the market authority for the next three years but the program of works that will determine the cost of the project is still being worked on.

Arce said that Rama already committed to set aside a partial P65 million for the construction which might be included in the next supplemental budget or the annual budget for 2011.

When the building gets fully operational, the city can finally clear M.C. Briones where the vendors were relocated when the building was razed by fire in 1998.   (THE FREEMAN)