AT LEAST 500 vendors who intend to do business during the Sinulog festival have already registered before the Cebu City Government.

Genevieve Alcoseba, Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP), said they expect the number to increase in the coming days since last Saturday, Jan. 5 was just the first day of registration.

“We’re anticipating more vendors to come and register, but we’d like to remind them that we will not be giving extensions anymore so they must make sure to register within our given period,” she said.

The DWUP’s registration booth in front of the City Hall legislative building will resume operations from Monday, Jan. 7 to Saturday, Jan. 12.

Alcoseba stressed that they will only give a special registration day for out-of-town vendors who will not be able to make it within the registration period.

If a vendor is found to have been doing business without the approved registration documents, Alcoseba said the City Government will apprehend him.

“That is why we are kindly asking them to register early or else the Probe (Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification, Enhancement) team will apprehend them. We will also issue special identification cards to those that are registered with us,” she added.

During last year’s Sinulog celebration, around 3,000 vendors were accredited by the City Government.

For this year, Alcoseba said they are expecting around 4,000 vendors to register. RTF