Talisay market vendors protest anew

CEBU, Philippines - With their transfer drawing near, vendors at the Tabunok Public Market have resumed their protests asking for the resignation of some top officials at city hall.

At least 500 vendors wearing black shirts and red ribbons and screaming "Mayor resign! Bucao resign!" staged a rally at the tricycle parking area, which is adjacent to the public market in Tabunok.

"Mayor" refers to Mayor Socrates Fernandez and "Bucao" refers to Vice Mayor Alan Bucao who is among city officials who support Fernandez's order to have more than 900 vendors transferred to the new public market in barangay Lagtang.

Paul Labalan, one of the stallholders at the meat section, said there will be more rallies to come and that a more massive protest on June 28 is being planned, the day Fernandez's order takes effect. 

The new market, which sits on a 2.7- hectare, boasts huge columns, tiled floors, and concrete walls, but the protesting vendors still insist on staying at the old Tabunok Public Market despite its current state, it being the center of all commerce.

The Lagtang market meanwhile is not only inaccessible to the buying public, it also poses danger to them being along the Mananga River, the vendors contend.

But Fernandez, in an earlier interview, said the area where the new market is built and its neighboring sites have no history of flooding, especially now that on the upper part of the village, a number of dams have already been built to catch the rainfall coming from the mountain barangays.

Also, Councilor Rodi Cabigas, chairman on council committee on Infrastructure, said the city has already built a riprap structure along the riverbank to protect its facility worth about P100 million and the people that will be using it.

Cabigas also said the Environmental Management Bureau has also cleared them for it, and has given them an environmental compliance certificate.

The vendors filed a preliminary injunction case against Fernandez which is now pending in the Regional Trial Court branch 5 asking that the transfer not be enforced by the city government for fear that they succumb to poverty, among other reasons.

But earlier, city hall spokesperson Arturo Bas said the vendors are opposed to the transfer not for anything else but for their "own interest."

This was also shared by budget officer Edgardo Mabunay who said that most of the stalls at the Tabunok Public Market are monopolized by certain families such as the Labalans and the couple Helen-Kelly Abella.

A city hall official, who refused to be named, said he does not believe these vendors could live in poverty as most of them, if not all, have already been enriched by the old market.

"Mura ra na sila'g pobre tan-awon, pero subdivision na puro gapuyo nya ang mga sakyanan ana mga SUV. Nidatu ra na sila sa merkado pero ang gobyero piso-piso ra gyuy madawat sa renta sa ilang mga stalls. Uban gani ana nila, di pa mamayad," he said. (FREEMAN)