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Thursday, March 24, 2005
Carbon vendors plead to CH officials: Build ramp
“SAVE our dying businesses. Build the market ramp.”
This is the plea of thousands of vendors at one of Cebu’s oldest landmarks, the Carbon Public Market.
Until the Cebu City Government fulfills its promise to build the P135-million ramp to connect Units 1 and 2 of the market, vendors there will remain ambulant and cause heavy traffic.
Because of the congestion and lack of parking space, market goers are discouraged to shop in Carbon, said Ermita Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta.
Stallholders of the Unit 2 building, which was gutted down by fire in 1998, have been selling in temporary stalls.
Consumers buying root crops and native delicacies to meet their needs for the Holy Week filled the streets of the entire Carbon Market since Wednesday night.
In an attempt to sustain their small businesses outside regular market days, stallholders and ambulant and sidewalk vendors try to meet the increased demand.
“They are just trying to recover their losses in the past months because the vendors don’t have adequate space where they could sell their wares. Wa naman ni sila magsalig sa halin. Gasalig naman lang ni sila sa utang (They’re relying in debt, not on profit),” Rupinta explained.
Heavy traffic
Rupinta said they have been conducting special operations and managing heavy traffic in the area as the big crowd of market goers is expected until Good Friday.
The Ermita Barangay Council passed last Jan. 24 a resolution appealing to Mayor Tomas Osmeña “to fast track the completion of the market complex by building the proposed ramp to provide space for the vendors, whose businesses are dying.”
The resolution also pleads for the mayor to give emphasis on small businesses so they will be able recover their losses and meet their family’s daily needs.
Rupinta dismissed earlier reports that WT Construction, who won the award to build the ramp, could not start with the project because of the presence of vendors in the development site.
WT, he said, could not begin the civil works because a perimeter fence built by Young Builders is occupying seven meters of Quezon Blvd. where the ramp is supposed to start.
Delay
Young Builders, who also has a pending project with the City to reconstruct the Unit 2 building, fenced the site to prevent entry to the building. It refused to allow entry in the area until the City pays them the P33 million for their initial works.
Rupinta said the delay should not be blamed on the vendors as those affected by the undertaking were relocated five months ago.
If only the City Government will negotiate with Young Builders, the problem would have been solved long ago, he added.
Osmeña had said the City will not pay Young Builders because the billing lacks documentation for the extra works.
The contractor, according to the City Planning and Development Office, continued to work despite a cease-and-desist order the City issued in May 2003. (GAC)
(March 24, 2005 issue)
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