Friday, October 10, 2008 Vendors’ group told: Weed out expired wares
THE Cebu City United Vendors Association (CCUVA) will be warned to police its own ranks.
If it fails to do so, Cebu City Market Administrator Raquel Arce said she will recommend to the mayor that the sidewalks be cleared of ambulant vendors.
The Market Operations Division seized last Tuesday assorted expired goods sold along Calderon and Manalili Sts.
Arce is meeting today with the leaders of the ambulant and sidewalk vendors to relay her warning. She said the leaders must serve as the eyes and ears of her office and that the incident should not happen again.
For the vendors selling expired products to have thrived in the Carbon Public Market area means the CCUVA tolerated their presence, she said.
“It is the right time that they take responsibility for the sidewalk. We have summoned the chapter leaders, block leaders. Kay nagdugay diha, gitagaa’g (Because they’ve been there for so long, they’ve enjoyed) tolerance,” she said.
Watch what’s out there
Her office got wind of the presence of expired goods being peddled in Carbon while monitoring the quality of imported milk products, particularly from China.
Arce said the leaders must be the ones to provide the information next time if they do no want all vendors to suffer.
The punishment, she said, will be imposed per street block, so vendors in a certain area should be wary of what the others are selling.
She warned consumers against expired goods after the Cebu City Market Police confiscated assorted expired goods that were reportedly patronized mostly by carenderia operators and mobile food vendors around 3 a.m. last Tuesday.
Among the seized items, the rusting cans of evaporated and condensed milk had their paper covers removed and the stamped expiry marks rubbed clean.
A City Health Department sanitary inspector who checked on the goods, particularly the 10 kilos of ground pork and packs of “chicken hotdogs,” said the seized items were not even fit for animal consumption.
The seized items were sold at considerably lower prices, which Arce said served as a come-on for buyers.
She said that if the seized items were from Mandaue, and the vendors hail from there, there is a high probability that the expired products are also sold there.
Arce said she could only keep watch over her jurisdiction, the 10 Cebu City public markets. She hoped that the vendors’ leaders will commit to help her office keep the consumers safe. (RHM)
