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Monday, May 16, 2005
Carbon vendors have college degrees, help others
By Aurelia l. Castro
Sun.Star Correspondent
WE see them in the wet market selling food, general merchandise, flowers and many others. They have two names.
The ones who own stalls and have business permits are called legitimate vendors, while ambulant vendors are mostly those allowed to sell their products in Carbon market from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. with their mobile stalls.
Calling
Her 30 years as an ambulant vendor have not been easy for Maria Pino-Buanghug. She has had to transfer from one post to another, wherever the vacancy is, to sell 300 to 2,000 kilos of vegetables a day from the Visayas and Mindanao.
Learning the ropes from her parents, Buanghug financed her studies in high school and college through her earnings as a vendor. She got degrees in social work and education from a university in Cebu.
Why then has she remained a vendor? "After many years of living as a vendor, I could no longer see myself as an employee of someone else. Tending my personal business and leading our organization is a great call for me," she said.
Buanghug is the president of the Cebu City United Vendors Association (Ccuva) that has around 10,000 members in Cebu City.
Buanghug was one of the vendors who fought the soldiers who were ordered to demolish their stalls after the Edsa Revolution in 1986.
Celia Quijoy, another ambulant vendor in Carbon market, was raised by her parents in Davao through their little business of selling fruits.
Her mother dreamed of making her a teacher. She graduated as an accountant instead but also took units in Education.
Quijoy recalls how she and her siblings went to school on different class schedules. "Most of the time I was late because I still had to wait for my older sister. We shared our school bag, shoes and others. But still, like my other siblings, I was able to graduate," she said.
Quijoy migrated to Cebu in the 1980s and began her own business of fruit vending. She now has four children and a husband, who live in Barili to tend their small farm and livestock. She goes home at least once a week.
Like Buanghug, Quijoy chose to stay a vendor.
"I've found myself a home here in the market. Money is not easy to earn in our small business, but satisfaction is," she said.
Helping others
For the 60-year-old Lucy Libongcogon, helping some ambulant vendors is a joy.
"I was once an ambulant vendor, too, and I know how it feels to work hard to find your place and earn a living. Now I have a permanent stall in the market, but my heart still belongs to the ambulant," she said.
"My husband and I have around 15 vendors who sell puso (hanging rice) and a variety of viands to offices, banks, schools and many more around the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Talisay," she said.
The vendors earn 10 percent of their gross sales for the day, plus a commission on every item they sell.
Now 10 years in the food business, Libongcogon said they cook no less than two sacks of rice and around P7,000 worth of viands every day to sell.
With their income, Libongcogon was able to buy six trucks. But these were sold a few years ago and the proceeds invested in their food business.
Buanghug, Quijoy, and Libongcogon are just three of the thousands of ambulant vendors in the city who compose Ccuva, an independent nongovernment organization that takes care of the welfare of the street or ambulant vendors.
Ccuva's office at the Carbon market is equipped with a telephone line and two computer units with Internet, among other facilities. Its staff is available from Monday to Saturday.
(May 16, 2005 issue)
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