Letter to the Editor — The vendors' right to livelihood and subsistence

The Cebu City government's threat to demolish vendors' stalls is a cruel punishment to the city's urban poor who, denied of their right to decent jobs, resorted to vending as their only way to survive the severe economic crisis.

It becomes even more cruel for the city government to sacrifice the livelihood of thousands of urban poor just to impress foreign delegates in the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) summit.

While government continues to boast about economic growth, the increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) is a jobless growth. More and more people, particularly the poor, are relying on alternative means of subsistence such as street vending in order to survive poverty. Economists, in fact, attributed the contribution of the so-called "underground economy" for providing significant contribution in the country's economy.

This demolition threat exposes the nature of the Asean summit. Whose interest will it be serving when its delegates discuss economic issues? Will heads of states and their representatives not squirm in their seats when they meet, allegedly to improve trade and each country's economies, while thousands of urban poor residents lose their only means of subsistence?



Lito Vasquez
Secretary General
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) - Cebu