Mayor: Carbon fees worse than JVA

CEBU, Philippines — Mayor Nestor Archival said that beyond the ongoing review of the Carbon Market joint venture agreement (JVA) with Megawide Construction Corporation, the city must now confront the alleged excessive daily fees being collected from vendors by their own associations.

Archival said that while the city respects the Regional Trial Court’s decision denying the petition to stop the JVA, he considers the reported collections by vendor groups to be far more disadvantageous to ordinary stallholders.

In its April 23, 2026 ruling, the court said injunctive relief is an extraordinary remedy and found that the vendors’ concerns—displacement, business disruption, and increased costs—did not meet the threshold of “irreparable injury.”

The ruling allows construction to continue, while the validity of the JVA will be decided in the main trial set for June 24, 2026.

Archival revealed that information surfaced during executive sessions, from both vendor representatives and Megawide, pointing to organizations charging vendors around ?300 per day for items such as lantay or wooden platforms, electricity, bulbs, weighing scales, and other add-ons.

He noted that if one association has 2,000 members, collections could reach ?600,000 daily, or more than ?18 million monthly—figures that in some cases may even surpass the city government’s own revenues from the market.

“There are certain fees nga worth around P300 kada adlaw nga kolektahon sa mga different organizations… Now for example, one organization will have two thousand members, unya let’s say P300 so there would be P600,000 a day… nakakuha mo? So if that is P600 thousand a day, multiply that 30 (days)… Mas dako pa ang makuha sa mga vendor organizations sa city government nato nga makuha?” Archival said.

He also cited reports that vendors are compelled to use weighing scales controlled by certain groups or risk being denied permits, describing the practice as unfair and disadvantageous.

“Ang weighing scale kon dili ka mugamit sa ila, dili ka patindahon… So this is something like—unfair or disadvantage sa atong mga vendors,” he added.

Archival directed the Market Operations Division to verify the matter alongside the exact number of legitimate vendors and stalls, stressing that under the JVA, each vendor should occupy only one stall and that transparency in collections is required.

Prior to Archival’s disclosure, the Cebu City Council had already acted on the issue of alleged excessive fees.

The council earlier approved a resolution authored by Councilor Alvin Arcilla calling for a thorough investigation into the reported daily collections.

Arcilla’s resolution detailed the alleged breakdown of fees charged to vendors: ?20 for rent, ?20 for lantay, ?100 for tent use, ?50 for tent storage, ?50 for weighing scales, ?20 for water, ?20 for electricity, ?30 for bulbs, ?50 for waste collection, and ?50 for incidentals such as legal fees and insurance—amounting to ?420 per vendor per day.

With more than 3,000 vendors operating in Carbon, the resolution warned that aggregate collections could reach hundreds of millions annually.

The measure directed the Cebu City Market Authority and the Committee on Markets to determine the legality, basis, collection mechanisms, and actual disposition of the fees.

Carbonhanong Alyansa, a coalition of market vendors, welcomed the council’s move, saying the investigation would help clarify which fees are lawful and ensure that no group is wrongly blamed.

The group reiterated that allegations linking them to forced collections and threats during vendor consultations in June 2025 were false and factually inaccurate.

In a statement last month, the group said the process would benefit not only vendors and the city, but also the public, while reaffirming its commitment to due process, transparency, and constructive engagement.

Irwin Gok-ong of the Cebu Market Vendors Development Cooperative (CEMVEDCO), in a separate interview with The Freeman on Tuesday, said he would reserve detailed comment until the council’s investigation is completed but welcomed the mayor’s directive to the Market Authority.

He explained that some dues collected by associations are voluntary, along with those for the barangay, and that only the city’s arkabala of ?20 is mandatory.

He added that many vendors opt to rent weighing scales, lighting, or platforms for convenience.

Gok-ong said vendors, including their group, also pay Megawide for water and electricity, which he described as service charges rather than arbitrary fees.

He also said he does not believe collections reach ?300 per day per vendor for their association, stressing the need for official clarification.

The controversy over vendor fees now runs parallel to the broader debate on the Carbon Market redevelopment.

“Ang mga vendors nagtuo mo nag sige silag syaok dinha nga disadvantageous ni (JVA)… unya ang mas disadvantageous mao ning mga tawo nga nangolekta dako pa sa city government,” Archival said.

While the city government pushes for modernization, vendors and residents continue to resist what they see as the privatization of Cebu’s oldest and largest public market, a hub of livelihood and heritage.(CEBU NEWS)