Mandaue to allow selling market stall lease rights

CEBU, Philippines — The Mandaue City government will allow stall owners to sell their lease rights at the new city public market which is scheduled to open Wednesday.

City Administrator Jamaal James Calipayan said the city government will allow the practice until all existing contracts will expire next year.  After which, all vendors who do not want to continue their lease contract with the city government should surrender their stalls to the market administrator so it will be awarded to another interested person after due process.

"For now, we have a policy to status quo on the registered stall vendors of the old public market," Calipayan said.

He also said that holders of multiple stalls in the old public market may apply the same number of stalls in the new market provided that the stalls are in the same section. Calipayan said they will not allow multiple stalls in different section because it is prohibited under the City Ordinance.

The rationale behind it is that the stall holder should be physically present to tend to the stalls he or she is renting.  He said it would be physically impossible for the stall owner to be in different stalls in different sections of the market.

Calipayan said the city government is set to raffle off the stalls to the vendors starting today until Tuesday. (FREEMAN)