Electric cars to take customers to new Mandaue market

CEBU, Philippines - Four 14-seater electric cars which the Mandaue City government bought at P600,000 each were blessed yesterday. The said electric cars will be used to ferry customers to and from the new public market behind the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex once it opens on the first week of November.

Although the said new public market is now complete, the city will still have to wait for the approval of the new market code from the city council before the opening.

The code will determine the fees at the new public market.

Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes said during a press conference yesterday that after some vendors resisted the transfer to the new public market, the city made it a point to make the new market more accessible, hence the electric cars.

Aside from the free rides, Cortes said that he will also talk with the traffic management board about allowing tricycles and multicabs into the new public market.

“The moment nga dad-on na ang mga public utility vehicles didto dili na sila ma-deprive sa halin kay primary concern baya nato ang mga vendors, kay mag-unsa na lang ang merkado kon way halin,” the mayor said.

Vendors who remain resistant to selling in the new market also now have no more choice as the city will soon rehabilitate the old market as soon as the new one opens.

The city plans to have the old market as a one-stop shop selling the city’s products.

He said that if the vendors prefer to sell dried goods then they may go back to the old public market once the rehabilitation is done.

He also said that there is really the need to vacate the old public market as a team from the city engineer’s office inspected the old market and declared it unsafe after finding cracks and falling debris. The market was also devastated by a fire in 2004.

However, market administrator Mosulini Soliva said not many vendors will resist the transfer as the old market is really in bad condition and prone to flooding.

Soliva also said they will also try to study the proposal to increase the tenure of vendors from the usual five years after this suggestion was brought up during a public hearing last Tuesday.

The proposal will be tackled during the monthly meeting of the market authority board. –(FREEMAN)