Talisay convinced transfer of vendors will push through

CEBU, Philippines - Despite claims by vendors that the new public market in barangay Lagtang is a floating structure, Talisay City Hall officials remain confident that the results of yesterday's ocular inspection conducted by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) will favor them.

"We’re positive that the results will be in favor of the city government. Because the DENR has already inspected the site earlier and na-address na nato ang mga minor problems like the lack of billboard which should have an ECC number and we have already updated our documents," said assistant city engineer Gamaliel Vicente in an interview.

And although both agencies have asked for five working days to submit their results, Daisy Toledo, second engineering district chief, said that as far as the gadion walls are concerned, these are "permeable," meaning it could stand the harshness of the river below it.

It was the DPWH that constructed these walls that served as a riprap structure for the new market in 2007.

Toledo said that when it was constructed, the entire area was meters away from the natural course of the river. But through time there could be changes in the direction of the water, hence, yesterday they were trying to determine the distance of the "reckoning point of the river," she said.

However, if it is found out that the gadion walls are within the river's easement zone as believed by the vendors, they could make some mitigating measures, instead of stopping the scheduled transfer as what some vendors want.

"The decision is still within the local government unit," said Toledo.

Toledo asked the city officials to give them five working days to submit the results of their surveys.

The city has already scheduled the transfer of the vendors to the Lagtang market on Aug. 23, the day when these agencies will submit their reports.

City legal officer Owen Algoso who was there representing the city, said that they can wait for these results, but did not say categorically that they will postpone the transfer.

Several vendors yesterday still insisted that the new market is like a "boat" waiting to sail.

A brief fuss took place between a small group of vendors and Vicente when the former questioned the destruction of what they believed was an old dike.

The presence of the dike, which is at the far end of an area where the terminal is, only manifests that the market encroaches into the Mananga River.

Josephine Cabriana, a vendor at the vegetable section in the Tabunok Public Market, told The Freeman that in the '80s the spot where the vegetable section is now was where she and her family did their laundry.

She said it was when the Metropolitan Cebu Water District built a dam that that part of the river had dried out.

And in 2004 the city had started constructing what is now the Lagtang public market.

The vendors also opened a manhole and saw that it was almost filled with rainwater.

"Nah wap-a gani gigamit, napuno na. Hapit na ta manglarga. Puera visita, puera visita," one of the vendors said in jest.

The EBM, through Engr. William Coniaga, who surveyed the market again, will reportedly answer some of these questions.

He also asked for one week before releasing the results of the survey.

And as to question of the true land area of the facility, that it is less than 2.7 hectares according to the vendors, city planning and development coordinator Christine Homez said it is the Land and Mapping Services (LMS) that will do it.

The office is also set to survey the new market's land area within the week, she said.

Homez said Mayor Socrates Fernandez will have the last word on the results of the surveys. - THE FREEMAN