Cops get tough vs undisciplined vendors

MANILA, Philippines - Police have cleared the Divisoria area and its side streets in Binondo, Manila of hundreds of vendors who reportedly obstruct the free flow of motorists and pedestrians.

The operation was an offshoot of the directive of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim to clear the city streets of uncontrolled and undisciplined vendors who cause chaotic traffic situation and misery to pedestrians. “There are no sacred cows here. We shall fully implement Mayor Lim’s zero vendor policy,” Meisic police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut, who led his men in tearing down illegal stalls put up by the vendors in Divisoria, said.

Under Lim’s EO No. 8 vendors shall be allowed to sell their wares only on designated vending areas from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Every vendor, upon securing permit from the City Hall’s Hawkers Section, shall use a table or stand measuring not more than one meter, with a distance of one and a half meters from each stand. Vendors shall also police their ranks and maintain cleanliness in their vending areas.

Yabut warned vendors of perpetual disqualification if they continue to violate the conditions and limitations of Lim’s order.

The STAR learned that the Sta. Cruz and Quiapo areas are the main complaints of the public due to a maze of vendors who occupy almost the entire streets around the Quiapo church to the detriment of churchgoers and shoppers.

“There is no civility here. Everyone is to his own. Vendors and pedestrians jostle for a space to walk through,” a shopper complained.

Others complain of rampant selling of sex gadgets in plain view of minors and students at the overpass bridge in Quezon Boulevard.

There are reports that vendors act like “kings” in their turf due to a weekly “tong” paid to their police protectors. A weekly collection of Sta. Cruz policemen, led by a certain “Rene Bautista,” allegedly reaches up to more than P100,000 from vendors alone, in exchange for their continued and unhampered operation, The STAR source revealed. – Nestor Etolle