Pasay vendors protest anomalous fee collection

A group of Pasay fish vendors assailed yesterday an aide of Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao Trinidad for allegedly collecting exhorbitant reservation fees for stalls in the new Pasay market, which is set to open next month.

In a press conference, Pasay City Public Market Vendors Dealers Community Association, Inc. president Josie Villena said vendors applying for a stall at the new market were required by Pasay market master Eddie Mendoza to pay P30,000 as reservation fee, excluding two months’ rent and another P5,000 and P3,000 as advance payments on power and electricity, respectively.

Villena said the fees are illegal because they are not stipulated in Ordinance 3754, issued last year, which fixed the rental rates of commercial spaces in the new market at a maximum of P20,528 for a lease contract.

The amount includes “the two months’ advance on rent and electricity and water deposit, which are optional. P30,000 is too much for us. Where would we get that amount?” she said.

Villena said some of her fellow vendors have decided to drop out of business or become “hawkers” or illegal vendors plying their wares on the street because they cannot afford to pay the fees.

She said Mendoza described the P30,000 as a “pledge of support” to the city government.

“The deadline for the full payment of the P30,000 (was yesterday). A Pasay vendor is also required to pay a cooperative membership fee of P5,500 aside from the P30,000 and advance payments for utilities. What we are puzzled about is why the money that my colleagues have paid has been deposited in a private account at Allied Bank, instead of the city treasurer’s account,” Villena said.

Villena said Mendoza has not issued official receipts to her colleagues who had made partial payments on the first half of the month.

Mendoza could not be reached for comment.

Trinidad denied that there is such an illegal collection of reservation fees from market vendors, saying that the vendors’ protest is actually a politically motivated attack by his opponents.

Trinidad accused former Pasay congresswoman Connie Dy, who lost to him in the last May elections, as the one behind the smear campaign.

 “This is an old issue. This is only a fabrication of dissatisfied vendors who want to get many stalls. The collection is legitimate because we have an ordinance for that. Wag nyo na lang sakyan yan pulitika lang yan,” Trinidad said.

He said he once saw Villena posing for a photograph with one of his political opponents, former mayor Allan Panaligan, who lost in the congressional race last May.

Trinidad said Mendoza is a “good man” who is “just doing his job.”