THE more than 100 vendors who were affected when the Cebu City Government launched its clearing operation can return to vending their wares on sidewalks.

This was the assurance Mayor Edgardo Labella gave to some 50 vendors at the Plaza Sugbo on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.

Just a day earlier, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III had commended Labella for clearing the city’s sidewalks of vendors and urged him to keep them free of obstruction.

City Administrator Floro Casas Jr., Market Administrator Jonil Matuguina and Raquel Arce, Prevention, Order, Beautification and Enhancement chief, will meet on Wednesday, Oct. 2, to identify areas downtown where the vendors can sell.

The vendors have complained that they don’t earn enough every day at the Tabo sa Banay, where they have been relocated.

But upon their return, vendors will have to use smaller tables so they don’t block pedestrians, among others.

The mayor sought the permission of Sen. Bong Go to let the vendors return to the sidewalks and asked the latter to make President Rodrigo Duterte understand the City’s actions.

“If I don’t follow the President’s order, I will be suspended. But I told the senator about my principle of political will tempered with compassion and mercy,” Labella said in Cebuano.

“You should thank Sen. Bong Go. Without his help, you will not be able to return to the sidewalks. The important thing is you don’t block the sidewalks,” Labella told the vendors in Cebuano. (From PAC of SuperBalita Cebu, PJB)