AFTER the huge fire that hit sitio Bato in Barangay Ermita, some vendors in the nearby Carbon Public Market were affected and were not able to sell their goods.
Erwin Gok-ong, chairman of the Cebu Market Vendors Multipurpose Cooperative (Cemvedco) said more than 50 of their member vendors were left with nothing to sell after their houses were razed.
“It’s not actually 100 percent business as usual because about 10 percent of the vendors, most of them are ambulant, were hit by the fire and their money to buy what they often sell were also lost in the blaze,” he told SunStar Cebu.
He said the victims were still sleeping when the fire hit at past 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
“They start preparing their goods at 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and will continue to sell from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. So they were very tired and weren’t able to save almost anything aside from the clothes on their backs,” he said.
However, most vendors continue to sell various commodities like meat, fish and vegetables in Cebu’s biggest public market.
Gok-ong said they are in the process of accounting who among of their members needed assistance.
“We initially distributed five kilos of rice to the victims and we will soon organize a relief goods solicitation so we can extend more help to the fire survivors,” he said.
He reiterated the need for public market vendors to avail themselves of annual fire insurances from cooperatives especially that their area is prone to fire incidents.
“They have to avail themselves of insurances because, God forbid, if another fire will hit their businesses, they would have a cooperative to lean on in order to get back up,” he said.
The Cemvedco, which was registered in 2002 in the Cooperative Development Authority, has 1,200 active members.
It offers an annual fire insurance of only P250 per year and mostly caters to stall and ambulant vendors and even porters especially in the Carbon Public Market.
“One member managed to pay less than P4, 000 in fire insurance fees and he took home more than P800, 000 when a fire hit his home last year also in Ermita,” Gok-ong said.
Around 200 homes were razed, 500 families displaced, and P3 million worth of damages was pegged in the afternoon fire that hit Barangay Ermita on Tuesday.