Privatization of Manila markets defended

MANILA, Philippines – A Manila councilor yesterday defended the city government’s joint venture with a private company for the privatization and rehabilitation of public markets in the city.

Councilor Jocelyn Quintos, who chairs the city council’s committee on livelihood, asked Councilor Ali Atienza and Rep. Amado Bagatsing to stop politicizing the programs of Mayor Joseph Estrada to rehabilitate the city’s markets.

The local government will ensure that the vendors will be able to return to their stalls, Quintos said.

Quintos noted that the city government earns P1.3 million yearly from the operations of the Sampaloc market but incurs an expenditure of around P1.5 million, or a net loss of P200,000 annually.

“We need to make public markets all over the city competitive with supermarkets,” she said.

Quintos said that under the joint venture, the vendors will be allowed to return to their former stalls and pay daily rental of P40 in the next two years.

Bagatsing earlier announced that he is running for mayor in 2016, with Atienza as his vice mayor.

Councilor Joel Chua, chairman of the committee on markets, hawkers and slaughterhouse, assured the vendors that they will not lose their livelihood.

Under the agreement with XRC Inc., the city government will not spend a single centavo for the rehabilitation of public markets, according to Chua.

He said the Sampaloc market will be equipped with closed-circuit television cameras and other facilities.

The rehabilitation of the Sampaloc public market is part of Estrada’s urban renewal program.