Program aims to make city premier business location

CEBU, Philippines - The Mandaue City government has launched its “My Mandaue Program” aimed at positioning the city as a “premier business destination in central Philippines.”

Two barangays – Centro and Mantuyong – will be the pilot areas for the program. The City Hall, for one, is situated in Barangay Centro and the city government wants to bring back the significance of the city’s historical and cultural sites.

One way of doing so is to remove the ambulant vendors and informal settlers currently doing business at the National Shrine of St. Joseph, which is within the vicinity of City Hall, said City Administrator James Abadia.

There were no ambulant vendors and informal settlers in the area 30 years ago, Abadia said, as he showed a photograph of the place during a press conference .

The ambulant vendors and informal settlers said to have occupied the area slowly after the fire that razed the old public market located at the back of the St. Joseph Church in 2004. As a consequence of the fire, the entire stretch of Zamora B. Ceniza and Gomez streets were utilized as market spaces.

A new market was opened at the back of the Mandaue City Sports Complex last January 8, but ambulant vendors and informal settlers never left the sidewalks near the St. Joseph Church. Their continued presence thereat has reportedly damaged drainage lines and caused potholes on the road itself, not to mention that the public, especially senior citizens and persons with disabilities, can no longer use the sidewalks.

The only way for the “My Mandaue Program” to succeed, Abadia said, is to clear the area of ambulant vendors and informal settlers. Mandaue Mayor Jonas Cortes has reportedly given program organizers one year to rehabilitate the city’s center.

Lawyer Jamaal Calipayan, the mayor’s secretary, said the city will form an association that owners of informal businesses and ambulant vendors can be part of so that they can be situated in one site and do business legally.

Another benefit of forming the association, Calipayan said, is that those who will form part of the group would no longer allow other unaccredited groups to thrive in the city, thus, the number of ambulant vendors would be lessened.