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Saturday, September 27, 2003
Commotion ensues as Speed tears down anti-Tomas posters
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
SQUATTERS Prevention and Encroachment Elimination Division (Speed) personnel yesterday tore posters put up by Sto. Niño sidewalk vendors to oppose Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s order to demolish their stalls.
The operation caused a brief commotion because the sidewalk vendors scampered inside the Basilica del Sto. Niño through the gate along D. Jakosalem St. past 1 p.m.
The area was crowded since devotees flock to the basilica on Fridays to hear the novena masses.
Sto. Niño Sidewalk Vendors’ Association (SNSVA) president Basan Amora said the demolition team surprised them when it arrived with three Mobile Patrol cars and a Kaohsiung bus.
“We pleaded with them to allow us to sell. The vendors are going hungry,” Amora said of the group, which was subjected to several clearing operations since last year.
SNSVA, which sought the advice of former governor Vicente “Tingting” de la Serna, will be filing on Monday a case against the mayor for “discriminating” against them, Amora said.
Lawyer Alfonso “Poch” Cinco and five other lawyers volunteered their legal services.
The group maintains that if the mayor ordered the demolition of their stalls, he should also have the concrete stalls of Conchita Tan torn down.
They are also asking the City for an alternative vending site since Tan’s stalls could only accommodate 44 vendors. Amora said at least 67 SNSVA members lost their stalls to the City-ordered demolition.
As part of their protest actions, they put up posters calling the mayor “terorista” and “Bin Laden.”
The demolition team seized 18 of these.
However, Speed chief Vicente Mercado denied the team took the posters on the wall.
“The ones we got were those left as garbage,” Mercado said.
The Speed team, he said, only passed by the area on their way to demolish six structures in Barangay Day-as and to clear Zamora St. of pushcarts of ambulant vendors.
(September 27, 2003 issue)
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