Aguilar: Clearing ops: Band aid on a gunshot wound

I WENT to Bacolod City Public Plaza yesterday to have my leather shoes repaired. I was told that shoe cobblers usually congregate at the center of the plaza itself. True enough there were a number of vendors who offer such services.

Interestingly, after assessing my pair of shoes, the one who attended to them told me that they don’t really need fixing. He just removed an unnecessary appendage and returned them without charging me at all.

You see, I’m drawn to these kinds of experiences. It renews my faith in humanity when even the least among the marginalized in the community would claim his dignity by being honest and fair in making a living.

However, just when I crossed the streets to take a cab back to the office I noticed a commotion from among the vendors displaying in front of private establishments. They were all in panic as they rushed to hide their goods inside the private establishments who by the way allowed them in and gave them shelter. Apparently, there was a clearing operation going towards their direction and they did not want to be caught.

This was precisely what I was fearing in my previous article about clearing sidewalks from illegal vendors. If clearing operations are not well orchestrated and planned it will be a band aid on a gunshot wound. It will become a daily chasing game which will sometimes end up very bad for both the enforcers and the vendors. And the problem is never really solved. I know that with certainty because I experienced it first hand in a city that I used to handle before.

As I said in my previous column, we have to understand that these vendors are just trying to make a living too. And that they have mouths to feed and family to support as well. If they are not properly accommodated or relocated they will find a way to go back to the streets to sell.

What was even more depressing at what I witnessed was that most of those vendors who were running for their lives were women in their senior years. For us who have good jobs and who pay our dues to the government, it would probably be easy to say they are the problem because they are the ones who broke the law. But we can never really relate to their daily struggles. I mean who would like to play with their lives on the streets on a daily basis if they got better options? And senior citizens at that. This is precisely where sensitivity in governance comes in without compromising public safety and the law.

I had been a teacher for a decade and I always believe in the power of repetition, so allow me to repeat at least three of the five things I was suggesting the other time in the hope that the concern implementing agencies will at least heed to some of them:

1. The issue is more complicated than it appears and so an inter-agency task force is essential to successfully carry out such task. An inter-agency does not mean the police and the clearing operation team only. What I meant was to put on board DSWD, DOLE, and all other agencies that can help in supporting livelihood programs for whoever gets adversely affected. Clearing operation should be the last recourse. That is easy but that is not sustainable. Let us not do short-cuts and quick-fix. Let us get into the bottom of the problem first. Yes there may already be a relocation site inside a market but it may not even be the appropriate solution. A big number of them will not survive in the competition inside such market and their target market will probably not go there at all. It’s either we equip them with new livelihood skills and a support program to sustain them or we segment them and find a way that they can remain in the location legally to practice trading.

For instance, if a group of vendors with homogeneous products congregate at a certain area, then the City Economic Enterprise could very well explore on renting a commercial space in the said area and have them sub-leased on a socialized scheme to these illegal vendors so they can conduct trading legally and still survive. That is very much within the power of the LGU.

2. Always implement the law with a heart. While these vendors are illegal, they are not criminals. In fact most of them are conducting clean business fair and square with their customers as I previously shared. They just want to survive. Therefore it is important to communicate clearly the actions to be taken and cushion the impact for those who will be adversely affected. Provide relief goods for those with families to feed until such time they become legal vendors or when they can already stand on their own.

3. Sustain the support provided for those dislodged by the operation. This may mean adding programs that will bring patrons to the new site or design activities that will promote foot traffic to the businesses of those affected.

I am one with the government in clearing the roads from illegal vendors. By all means let us support such call, but I am not one with them in how they conduct the clearing operations or at least how they are perceived by the illegal vendors, at least not when I see old women in their 70’s rushing to carry very heavy bags of goods just to hide them from the authorities. No wonder why even the legitimate establishments took pity on them and gave them shelter. Surely that is not the kind of governance we want.

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