Antipolo vendors get assurance on market transfer

MANILA, Philippines - Antipolo City Mayor Nilo Leyble is confident that the transfer of the city’s public market to a new site would mean more earnings for vendors as “businesses would grow.”

During a recent public hearing, Leyble said the old public market is located a few meters away from the church and City Hall and accessible only by narrow roads with no parking areas.

But the new public market would be located along Sumulong Highway near the intersection of Circumferential Road going to Taktak Road, which is wider than the previous site.

Although Leyble thinks of the welfare of the vendors of the old public market, he said he, too, must consider the welfare of the general public as a whole.

“The downtown area is so congested, our population is consistently growing, the number of vehicles increases every year and we have a public market that has no parking area. We have to do something about it,” he said.

“We have to spread development outside the vicinity of the church, City Hall and the place we have known for so long as the public market,” he added.

Leyble assured the vendors and stall owners that the transfer would be beneficial to them.

“I know how the stall owners and sellers feel about the transfer. But the new location is wider and bigger than the old. There will be a significant increase in the number of buyers. You have your old ‘suki’ (patrons) and you will have new customers,” he said.

“We draw plans taking into consideration what is more beneficial to the public. Change is imminent. Rest assured we are doing it for the good of the general public, so that progress can be achieved,” he added.