IT IS now three weeks since we started with a fresh mandate to serve the city as a councilor and its now two weeks that I have handled the Committee on Market, trade, commerce and Agriculture. When I got the committee, my colleagues said “good luck, nagrigat dayta nga committee.” It’s with a various reasons that I did, first during the campaign I have been advocating Education for all; improve the palengke, and a balanced environment among others. So when the council convened, I shared my intentions and since Councilor Cayabas and I wanted education, I yielded and said since you are new you can have it and when I volunteered for market, no one contested. The city secretary sent us a list of 273 pending items in our committee. At least 16 items were to be noted as moot and academic but all the others need to be acted upon. I started with the issue on roving/ambulant vendors and so read the entire proposed ordinance, resolutions, and decisions of Baguio City Market Authority (BCMA) and the tax code 2000-01. We set up the meeting to hear them before I could make a report on the documents at hand. We had the meeting last July 17, 2019 together with the Mayor, the City Treasurer, City licensing officer, the POSD and the market Superintendent and later have to call in the CEPMO head. There were 600 vendors attending some of which did not register, 136 were without special permit and only 320 with special permits. The city treasurer confirms that there are 554 as of June 30, 2019. According to Councilor Sembrano which was 10 years ago it was only 200 vendors, through the years they have increase despite the accommodation of at least one half of the total into the regular market and satellite markets. It was also a revelation to me, that the only ordinance the roving/ambulant vendors are being guided with is tax ordinance 2000-01 which mentions that the BCMA headed by the Mayor has management control over the market. There is no existing Ordinance that governs the conduct of roving or ambulant vendors in the city of Baguio. There is an existing BCMA resolution no 20-2016 that was passed which governs the issuance of special permit to the vendors. The POSD, the market Supervisor and the barangays are supposed to implement the agreements. I also found out that roving vendors are not allowed in the central business district (CBD) area except in Burnham Park. This is rather abnormal to me since the park is beyond the commerce of men and that Burnham is part of the CBD. However, it looks like this may be the case because of the lobbying of 200 vendors plying their business in the park. These are not permitted roving vendors in the city market, however, with the permitted and not permitted selling along the market sidewalks, they practically prevent the customers from entering and buying from the market vendors. The consequence is that the regular stall owners of the market then go out to the sidewalk and streets to sell their wares, reasoning that the roving vendors prevent the customers to get inside the market place. During the general meeting, Market Supervisor Jun Ragma read the rules and regulations for roving vendors, and then Mayor Benjie Magalong gave his message before the open forum. It was clear to us who were there that the vendors agreed with the mayor when he said “increasing the vendors will weaken the income of licensed stall owners and other vendor, thus no new permits will be issued. It is a move to regulate and find alternatives for those who will be deprived. Mayor also proposed that after the Burnham Park will be rehabilitated then pockets of selling booths will be given to the roving vendors in strategic areas. The Burnham vendors have not paid their renewal and the city treasurer told them that the office is waiting for them to pay the renewal of their special permit. For the displaced vendors without permit, this is what our committee proposes that 1) they will be organized and register with DTI or DOLE so they can qualify for trainings and cash loans or assistance. 2) They will be given livelihood trainings through the agency or the office of the Congressman 3) they will be provided a space to sell their wares which could have been done in their homes. The city is a palengke with the Baguio City market, the vendors and stalls in the parks, the roving vendors in the barangays and the central business district and the numerous private businesses in all the barangays and highways in the city. There is a big zoning problem of our city as business establishment fight with residential areas for every available space in our small city. Baguio City is a big market.