IT had to go viral on social media for Carcar City to act on the indiscretions of its lechon vendors inside its public market. For years now, complaints had intermittently surfaced on social media and not until recently had it picked up like bush fire.
Mayor Mercedita Apura had shut down four lechon stalls inside the Carcar Public Market on Friday, Nov. 8, 2019, for various violations: lack of mayor’s and sanitary permits, inaccurate weighing scales, peddling and hawking by sales attendants in the passageway and selling leftovers or reheated lechon.
The lechon at the market has been the usual stopover for not a few travelers heading to the south of Cebu or driving back to Metro Cebu. If not eating the lechon in one of the diners, people bring them out, expecting that their choice cuts made it to the bags. Unfortunately, a good number of clueless customers would find out that they had been conned with old, spoiled stock. Imagine the extent of danger to one’s health had they been consumed.
Apura said three of the four lechon stall owners tried to apologize and pleaded to allow them to reopen before December. Reports said two of them were subjects of the complaint by customers who exposed their upsetting experience with them.
Apura said she denied their appeal. She needed to teach the stall owners their lessons; they cannot return to their stalls and they should be penalized for their violations.
“I told them, there’s nothing I can do. They’ve committed the violations. So, let this be a lesson to them. If ever they are given a chance to sell inside the public market again, they should not waste it,” Apura said.
Good decision there by the mayor, but we do hope from hereon that government will closely monitor the many aspects of the industry. For one, the area where the lechon stalls are inside the public market finds itself wanting with poor sanitation. While the city has designated a better area for drive-by tourists, it might consider relocating the lechon stalls out of the dense, humid public market.