Cebu City acting mayor Michael Rama yesterday ordered the suspension of the scheduled demolition of 49 market stalls at Freedom Park along Magallanes and Escaño streets in barangay Ermita.
Rama instructed members of the Market Authority headed by city administrator Francisco Fernandez to meet and discuss the request of the vendors to cancel the demolition after they promised to partially pay their obligations.
The Market Authority earlier decided that the temporary modules or stalls of the vendors should be destroyed not just because the vendors are no longer paying business taxes but they also live in their stalls in violation of the agreement.
Some of these vendors owe the city as much as P200,000.
“Wala tawon mi makabayad kay duna man gud mi’y problema, gawas nga minus ang among halin, namatyan sab mi,” one of them said.
But market administrator Raquel Arce, a member of the market authority, rejected their justification.
“Pirmi lang g’yod ko makadungog anang inyong mga rason nga mamatyan, alkanse ug unsa pa na diha,” she said. She wants vendors to pay their obligations in full or else face closure.
“Unsa may gusto ninyo nga ang Freedom Park mahisama sa Warwick Barracks market nga nahimo na karon nga residential area? Daghan ninyo naninda nga wala magpahibalo sa syudad,” Arce said.
Some vendors admitted that they just bought the rights of the stalls from the previous stallholders who already stopped their business.
Freedom Park is bound by Magallanes, Escaño, El Filibusterismo and Calderon streets and was intended as a place where people can enjoy their freedom of expression. But at present there is no more vacant space in the so-called park.
It was created during the stint of then Mayor Sergio “Serging” Osmeña Jr., father of Mayor-on-leave Tomas Osmeña, even before the issuance of Batas Pambansa 880 which provides that every city and municipality must set aside a freedom park within six months from the effectivity of the law in 1985.
Section 15 of the law provides for an alternative forum through the creation of freedom parks where no prior permit is needed for peaceful assembly and petition at any time. — Rene U. Borromeo/BRP (THE FREEMAN)