FIVE night market vendors are currently suspended while an investigation is ongoing on the issue of registered vendors allowing other individuals to use their stalls in the night market for a fee.
This is what Cebu City Market Authority Administrator Jonil Matuguina revealed after his office and the City Legal Office began an investigation on the vendors.
Matuguina said they identified the erring vendors by comparing the names of those registered in the master list of the Market Authority with the names of the vendors actually selling in the area.
The erring registered vendors were summoned before his office to air their side. However, only two of the five vendors appeared before his office.
For failure to explain their side, Matuguina said a judgment would be rendered based on the facts his office has gathered.
He said the report will be forwarded to the City Legal Office on Monday, Dec. 16, 2019.
On Dec. 12, City Attorney Rey Gealon said they had already issued notices to the stakeholders and various market vendor associations for a clarificatory hearing.
Gealon said they will include in the investigation those connected with City Hall who are suspected to be “in cahoots with these scheming and unscrupulous vendors.”
“Those vendors found to be liable will be blacklisted from the roll of beneficiaries of stalls in the market, while those employees involved will be suspended, depending upon the gravity or seriousness of the act committed,” said Gealon.
The investigation was made after Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella ordered an investigation on the matter after reports surfaced that some stall owners in the night market allegedly sold to private individuals the right to use their assigned stalls for P15,000 to P20,000 per month.
The registered sidewalk vendors pay only P1,200 a month to the City Government for their lease.
Labella said this scheme was one of the reasons the night market was stopped for a few months.
On Dec. 1, Labella allowed the night market to resume so that the vendors displaced by the road clearing operations ordered by President Duterte after his State of the Nation Address this year could earn a living again, especially this Christmas season.
Around 500 vendors take part in the night market.