CITY Hall’s Night Market team called on the City Engineering Office (CEO) on Thursday to light up most, if not all areas occupied by the relocated ambulant vendors near the Cogon market site by Monday or Tuesday next week.
This along with proposals to create a task force that would monitor the relocation area of ambulant vendors and issuance of ID cards for profiled vendors were raised during Thursday afternoon’s meeting held by the Night Market team.
The team also met with a group of vendors who complained about the inadequate lighting in the spaces allocated to them by City Hall.
“Since it’s City Hall that relocated you, we will address your concerns (and we hope you cooperate with us). Unlike before when you can just display anywhere you want, now we have to establish some order (so we don’t inconvenience the riding public),” Night Market team chairman Eric Salcedo told the vendors in Visayan during the meeting.
The vendors also complained about how some vendors would set up tents that would encroach on other vendors’ spaces.
Salcedo told them that they will inspect these areas and advised them to seek assistance from their command post along Capt. Vicente Roa and Yacapin streets.
Later, Salcedo also instructed representatives of the CEO to light up the areas occupied by vendors to protect them and their customers.
When asked if they have enough personnel to join a task force that will monitor compliance by the vendors to City Hall’s guidelines, City Economic Enterprises Department (CEED) chief Marfe Dacoco said they don’t.
The team then proposed to tap available personnel including job order (JO) workers for inclusion in the task force.
Task force members will undergo training and orientation by CEED and the Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA).
Salcedo and Regulatory Compliance Board (RCB) chairman Atty. Jose Edgardo Uy also pushed for the issuance of ID cards for profiled vendors.
“They should have IDs with them because if they don’t, we will enforce the guidelines,” Salcedo told the team.
Among the guidelines set for the relocated vendors at Guillermo, Daumar, and Ramonal streets as well as portions of Yacapin and Osmeña streets are that they should only sell at their designated areas and comply with the city’s (Clean As You Go) Ordinance and plastic regulation ordinance.
Drinking, gambling, and illegal power connections are prohibited and violators will be issued with ordinance violation receipts. Repeated violations will result in their eviction from their designated spaces. Portalets are provided for customers and vendors.
Any complaints will be resolved in the night market grievance committee of which the CEED is the administrator.
In his Friday radio program ‘Ang Inyong Alagad: Mayor Klarex Uy’, Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy repeated his appeal to the relocated vendors not to waste the opportunity given to them to sell at their designated spaces by complying with the guidelines.
“I reminded (the team) to secure their cooperation and to help transport the products (of violators evicted from their spaces),” Mayor Uy said in Visayan. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)
