Sidewalk vending

There’s no question that the president meant well when he issued his call to “reclaim all public roads” and rid them of illegal structures. This was promptly resonated by DILG through the issuance of MC2019-121, issued to all local government units “to clear roads of illegal structures and constructions”. This carried with it certain sanctions or penalties for non-compliance, and became a sort of a contest since the LGUs are supposed to be “rated.” So far as I’ve heard, no one got 100 yet.

Unfortunately, whether wittingly or unwittingly, this order has regenerated into an excuse to get rid of informal vendors, a marginalized sector of our society who earn their daily living vending on sidewalks. Was this really the specific intent of the statement of the president during his 4th State of the Nation Address? One only needs to read the transcript of that speech to see there was no directive whatsoever by the president to cut off the source of livelihood of millions of our fellow Filipinos. In cascading orders from the top down, and the insertion of other interpretations or interests along the way, we sometimes see ourselves persecuting those who have less in life, the people who need government help the most.

This is what the president said, a.) “Reclaim public roads which are being used for private ends and in the process, rid them of illegal structures and constructions.” b.) “Undertake immediate action to ensure the speedy and smooth flow of vehicular traffic.” and c.) “The country loses P3.5 billion a day due to the Metro Manila traffic.” Clearly, there cannot be any question on what was on the mind of the president then – he was concerned about the traffic. He was concerned about vehicular traffic congestion! That’s why the directive was to MMDA and to all other local officials of Metro Manila and other cities. To improve traffic.

Over-eager as we are, this cascaded to clearing everything else, not only the streets, but also the sidewalks, even if these do not directly translate to improving traffic at all. It became a carte blanche to run after street and sidewalk vending everywhere! Some can always argue that there is a connection somewhere, - that street vending can ultimately cause traffic congestion because the sidewalk becomes limited for pedestrians who will then walk on the street. But is this a general happenstance? On the contrary. In most cases, pedestrians and sidewalk vending co-exist, because the latter depends on the former for their daily bread. No sidewalk vending will happen if there are no pedestrian buyers. The market exists.

And yet, street vending is vibrantly supported elsewhere all over the world, in developed countries and less developed ones, with many states and cities enacting street vending laws to govern the trade. You just need to search the web to see this phenomenon. Street vending is an integral part of any city’s economy and provides livelihood to disadvantaged people.