Despite closure order, privately owned market in Tabunok remains open

CEBU, Philippines - A private market in barangay Tabunok, Talisay City, continues to operate despite the issuance of a closure order by Mayor Socrates Fernandez for lack of a proper drainage.

Talisay City Public Information Officer Arturo Bas said the “letter request” which orders the closure was sent last week to Drs. Jesus and Nieves Nacario, owners of the Nacario Public Market.

But as of this writing, the market remains open because the owners reportedly have not received the letter from city hall.

Apart from the letter, Fernandez has also issued an executive order of the same note, but this was not received since the office of the Nacarios in Tabunok and their house across it were closed when city hall employees went to deliver it.

The closure order was issued following complaints from vendors at the newly opened Lagtang Public Market, a few minutes by tricycle from the Nacario Private Market, claiming their sales have plummeted because the city government has failed to close their main competitor.

According to the Lagtang vendors, the city has failed to stop some of their fellow stallholders to also own stalls at Nacario and sell the same goods they are selling in Lagtang, to their detriment.

This reportedly results to a decrease in income to more than 60 percent, according to one meat vendor.

The city has however confiscated fish and meat products found sold in Nacario, but it appears that there are still fish and meat products sold in Nacario despite this move, especially that no vendor has been caught yet.

Meanwhile, the reason Fernandez has ordered the closure of the private market is not because its owners have allowed products that are only supposed to be sold in Lagtang Public Market, but because of the mere absence of a proper drainage.

The Nacario Private Market is a picture of makeshift stalls made of plastic canvass; its floors are not even concrete.

Despite the circumstances, Agnes Vergara, a stallholder, said she pays P150 per month, apart from the permit fees she pays to the city government.

Vergara admitted she also has a stall for slippers and fabrics in Lagtang, but she opted to get a space in Nacario for faring badly at the new public market.

As this developed, the Nacario couple filed a civil case against city hall officials including Fernandez for trying to close their business without due process.

In this case, the couple wants the defendants to pay them P900,000 as actual, moral and exemplary damages and for the litigation fees, and P5,000 as attorneys fees. (FREEMAN)