Mandaue vendors say no to further rent fees

CEBU, Philippines – Market vendors in Mandaue City opposed the move that requires them to pay P30 for each square meter of makeshift stall occupied outside the dilapidated market at the back of the city sports complex.

They were able to air their opposition during a public hearing called upon them by the market authority chaired by City Councilor Jimmy Lumapas last Thursday afternoon.

During the public hearing, market vendors were informed of the crafting of an interim ordinance establishing the regulation of the rental rate of the makeshift spaces as temporary stalls at the premises of the old market.

Although at present these stall vendors were paying a P30 daily rental of their makeshift stalls, no ordinance yet has been crafted for the collection of such fees.

So during the public hearing, the city proposed a P30 rental fee per square meter of the lot that they are occupying after it was found out that most of them have occupied more than two square meters each.

But this was totally opposed by the vendors who insisted that the P30 daily rental that they have been paying should stay put.

The vendors reasoned that they no longer wanted the city to collect more than P30 per day considering only a few people are going to the market due to the presence of ambulant vendors at the old dilapidated market in Barangay Centro.

Hyl Retuya, chief of staff of Councilor Lumapas, said the city demolition team tasked to apprehend these ambulant vendors cannot totally do its job all everyday due to the lack of manpower.

They also demanded that they will be issued with an official receipt everytime they pay for their daily rentals instead of the cash ticket presently being issued to them as these are also the once being issued only to the ambulant vendors.

During the public hearing, it was agreed that the city crafts an interim ordinance stating that those ambulant vendors apprehended for violating  anti-vending ordinance and the anti-abuse  of city  ordinance while selling their stuff at the old dilapidated market in Centro will be denied of  their application as a stall holder once the new public market will be constructed in Centro.

At present, the daily rental of the stall vendors was decreased to P30 from P70 to P80 after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake and typhoon Yolanda last year. The market , however, decided that an enabling law should be crafted to avoid any technicalities with the Commission on Audit.

A new market is expected to be constructed during the first quarter next year as the city government is presently working on acquiring a P600 million loan through the government to finance for its construction.