MMDA, Parañaque join hands to solve vendor problem

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the city government of Parañaque yesterday settled their differences yesterday and vowed to work hand-in-hand to provide a better place for Baclaran vendors on Redemptorist Road.

In a consultative meeting with local police and concerned sidewalk vendors, MMDA sidewalk clearing operations chief Bobby Esquivel and the local government, represented by city public information office chief Mar Jimenez, agreed to put up a vending area at an open space owned by the Public Estates Authority (PEA) in front of the Baclaran Church along Roxas Boulevard.

Esquivel said they would coordinate with PEA and the public works department to immediately implement the project that will finally solve the decades-long problem of illegal vending on Redemptorist.

During the meeting, concerns of each party were raised and points of concession were established. Both the MMDA and the local government agreed that vendors should be provided with the appropriate venue for their business.

"It is our objective too to provide you (vendors) with the appropriate venue. The government is willing to spend for the development of the place. It just has to be away from the road," Esquivel said.

City hall, which earlier created an ordinance allowing the vendors to occupy Redemptorist Road through an agro-industrial fair, conceded that the law should be implemented properly.

Also present during the meeting were MMDA legal counsel Leopoldo Tomas, Southern Police District director Chief Superintendent Prospero Noble Jr., Paranaque chief of police Superintendent Ronald Estilles, Barangay Baclaran chairman Roland Cailles and Rico Antonio, a leader of a Baclaran vendors’ association.

Tomas thanked the local government for finally cooperating with the MMDA. He said it was the first time that city hall attended a meeting between MMDA and vendors.

He noted that what the MMDA does is for the benefit of the many. The illegal vendors have already affected thousands of pedestrians and motorists, he added.

For the past 16 months that MMDA has been conducting clearing operations, two MMDA operatives had been killed and ten vendors had been seriously injured. The two MMDA satellite offices in the area had also been destroyed.

"Hanap-buhay ang nakataya ditto. Marami nang tindero ang nalugi. May pamilya din naman silang dapat pakainin," said Cailles who vowed to cooperate with the project.

Cailles hoped that the implementation of the local government’s project would take effect sooner. Noble, for his part, urged the local government to prioritize the project before elections.

"Elections should not be a hindrance to this project," said the district director. He also said there would be other concerns that need solution before the project takes its way, citing the clearing of the Muslim reclamation area at the PEA land as an example.