STALL owners doing business at the Carbon Public Market in Cebu City were given certificates of award that would allow them to sell their products at the market’s Unit 2 building in Barangay Ermita.

Around 161 certificates of award were given to the stall owners by the Cebu City government and Megawide Construction Corp. during a formal ceremony on Friday, July 30, 2021.

The certificates will serve as proof that the stall owners can sell their products at Unit 2, which will serve as interim market while the main market building will be developed by Megawide.

Irvin Cabales, Cebu City Market administrator, said majority of those who received the certificates were flower sellers from Freedom Park and Warwick Barracks, where the new market is set to rise.

Louie Ferrer, Megawide’s Infrastructure Development Division executive director, said after the interim market will be completed by October or November this year, the 161 stall owners doing business at Freedom Park and Warwick Barracks will be transferred there.

The stalls, which are five meters long, will be given to the vendors free of charge, Ferrer added.

In a separate interview, Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia said once the newly developed Carbon Public Market will be completed, it could become a tourist attraction.

“This is actually the beginning of a world-class Carbon Market for the Cebuanos. That is something that we should embrace as Cebuanos. Can you imagine that once the market is fully developed, it would be similar to the likes of commercial malls like SM and Ayala,” Garcia said in a mix of Cebuano and English.

Aside from Garcia and Ferrer, those who attended the turnover were Cebu City Councilor Renato Osmeña, who chairs the City Council’s committee on markets; Councilor Jerry Guardo, who chairs the committee on infrastructure; Cebu City Attorney Rey Gealon and other City Hall department heads, and barangay officials of Ermita. (PAC / JKV)