Pasay street vendors to be relocated to CCP?

They can’t be on the streets, so why not move vendors to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) complex?

A Pasay City official said on Wednesday that the city government is considering the CCP complex as a possible relocation site for about 400 street vendors who, for years, have occupied the entire 20-meter stretch of the road under an LRT station along Taft Avenue.

"They could have something like a tiangge. There’s a lot of space there," said Florencio Mateo, officer-in-charge of the City Traffic Bureau. But Mateo added the city government has yet to bring up the matter with CCP officials.

"Of course, we have to make sure that it will be clean and orderly all the time," Mateo said.

The CCP complex, long considered as a nesting place for high-brow art and culture, is already a venue for two popular carnivals as well as for the weekend gathering of thousands of members of the charismatic group, El Shaddai.

The vendors have occupied the stretch of Taft Avenue near the boundary of Pasay and Pa-rañaque, rendering the streets virtually impassable to vehicles.

The city government has cleared the road of vendors, and has given the sidewalks and the island under the LRT terminal to them, albeit temporarily.

Each vendor has been provided a five feet-by-13 inches space along the sidewalks and island under the LRT station for their stalls.

"We’re trying to remove them from the streets slowly. If we take a hard-line stance, there could be a violent clash between the city officials and the vendors," Mateo said.

Mateo also revealed the city government’s plan to regulate street vendors. — Nikko Dizon