I recently received a statement from a politician, who shall in the meantime remain anonymous, regarding the plan to clear the city’s streets of sidewalk vendors.
He said that while he was convinced that the city should comply with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to clear our roads, there has to be a “balancing of interests” so as not to prejudice the right to livelihood of the sidewalk vendors.
This is the kind of political double-talk that has doomed past attempts to restore sanity in our streets. Clean up the streets but not get rid of the sidewalk vendors completely? Unless he tells us how to do it, what he’s saying is nothing more than grandstanding.
My understanding is that the vendors have been offered relocation, so it is not as if a heartless government has slammed the door on them, leaving them with nowhere to go. The order from the DILG is clear and it is supported by the law: the streets should be cleared of all vendors. Obviously, that is non-negotiable.
Instead of encouraging them to dig in their heels, every responsible public official, especially an elected one, should strive to make the vendors understand that they cannot forever commercialize our roads and sidewalks for their private ends. In balancing two conflicting interests, the higher one should prevail.
The lines should be drawn clearly now so the city can have a precedent to lean on when it embarks on an exciting project in partnership with a giant conglomerate to transform the decrepit Carbon market into a modern supermarket.
Existing stallholders will be affected if and when the project pushes through. But Mayor Edgardo Labella said the displacement will only be temporary because once the new building is completed, they will enjoy first priority in the assignment of the stalls which will still cost the same and which will all be located on the ground floor. In the meantime, they will be allowed to sell in the area near the old Compaña Maritima building.
Labella had just met with representatives of SM when he broke the news on the joint venture to his Walk and Talk friends. It all started, he said, during his meeting with one of SM’s owners, who asked him how they could help him. “Just help us make the city grow,” he told her. Not long after, she sent through her emissaries the Carbon rehabilitation project proposal.
Although his discussions with the SM representatives were preliminary, the mayor was already able to secure one very important concession: the company will not compete with the market vendors.
The proposal will eventually go to the city council for review. Labella is confident that it will pass muster there. The name Carbon Market is already iconic, the mayor said, and soon “we will make shopping there truly an experience.”