Committee backs ID for city vendors

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council’s Committee on Laws finds nothing illegal with the implementation of the “No ID, No Vending” policy of the Office of the Market Administrator but has some reservations on the legality of the requirement to pay an arkabala per day to the city government.

Committee chairman Edgardo C. Labella said Item No. 5 in the Affidavit of Undertaking, which ambulant vendors at the Carbon Market are made to sign, binds the vendors to pay a certain amount daily to the city government for occupying the sidewalk or street to vend.

“Sidewalks and Streets are properties of public dominion they being intended for public use (Art. 420, Civil Code) and as such, are outside the commerce of man and cannot be the subject matter of contracts, such as the payment of an arkabala,” Labella said.

Labella furnished City Market Administrator Racquel Arce a copy of his committee’s recommendation as explanation.

Lawyer Jose Mari Poblete, city administrator and chairperson of the Market Authority, said the arkabala is a vending permit fee required from ambulant vendors who are not renting stalls.

“Ang mga vendors nga maisyuhan og arkabala or ticket allowed na maka-display in essence, mura na og temporary permit fee, regulatory ra ang nature dili tax,” he explained.

In August, Maria Buanghug of the Cebu City United Vendors Association, wrote a letter to the council seeking a legal opinion on the implementation of the ID system and the policy where the market administrator asks all ambulant vendors to sign an Affidavit of Undertaking.

In the Affidavit of Undertaking, the vendors are made to swear not to sell street food in the area they are occupying, to pay the arkabala daily, not to use appliances that will need electricity since they do not have their own meter, not to construct a permanent structure and to maintain cleanliness and orderliness in the area they are occupying.

On the 10th item, vendors are also made to swear that at any given time the city government, at its own discretion, order or require them to vacate the area, they would voluntarily remove or demolish their belongings and structures without delay.

Vendors must sign the affidavit before the market administrator issues the IDs.

“This affidavit of undertaking is oppressive and it threatens our right. After signing this, we already submit ourselves not to oppose what they want. We did not forget that there are no legal bases that allowed Sidewalk Vending, but for us, vending is our last recourse in this economic hard times…signing that document is tantamount to killing ourselves with our own knives,” Buanghug said.

Labella said there is nothing legally objectionable to the provision in question.

“It should be borne in mind that vending on the sidewalk and streets is illegal and the fact that vending is going on in the sidewalk and streets of the city do not make the activity legal. At most, it is only by tolerance and inaction on the part of the authorities that the activity persists,” he said.

 Labella added there is not legal right being violated in the vendors’ pending eviction because sidewalk and street vendors are subject to it with or without an undertaking on their part. (FREEMAN)