Carbon market repair underway

CEBU, Philippines - Over 500 vendors at the Unit II Carbon Market will soon be displaced to give way to the reconstruction project.

Market administrator Raquel Arce said the affected vendors will temporarily relocated at the M.L. Quezon Boulevard at the back of the Carbon Market. Arce said they have already met with the leaders of the various groups.

The reconstruction project will be done by the Young Builders Construction. It will follow the old plan which was prepared and approved in 2001 during the term of then mayor Alvin Garcia.

Arce failed to provide the contract amount but said the project has been allocated P170 million.

The Young Builders Corporation won the bidding in 2001 with P144.9 million bid price. But then mayor Tomas Osmeña rescinded the contract prompting the Young Builders to sue the city government.

Garcia ordered the construction to commence two months before his term ends. But Osmeña stopped the project when assumed office. According to Osmeña, he cannot spend P144 million in just one market.

He was also unhappy with the way how the market was managed because several vendors were not paying their daily stall rental. The Unit II Carbon Market was razed by fire in 1998.               

A vendors cooperative earlier offered to reconstruct the market through a 25-year Build and Operate Transfer (BOT) scheme. But the proposal failed.– (FREEMAN)