Carbon vendors group demands aid, 10-year rental moratorium

File photo
File photo

AN ALLIANCE of Carbon Public Market vendors has demanded that the Cebu City Government provide financial assistance to affected vendors and offer a moratorium on rentals for 10 years.

The Carbon-hanong Alyansa released a statement Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, calling the attention of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to the supplemental memorandum of agreement (MOA) to the joint venture agreement (JVA) of the Cebu City Government and Megawide Construction Corp. on the Carbon Market modernization.

The group lambasted Rama for signing the supplemental MOA last July 31 without consulting the stakeholders, which is the main reason they continue to oppose the project.

“We have still been denied participation in the drafting of the supplemental MOA. It, therefore, remains the principal reason why Carbon-hanong Alyansa, especially vendors in Warwick Barracks and Freedom Park and residents of Sitio Bato, continue their opposition to the JVA,” read a portion of the statement.

The alliance of vendors also said there is no guarantee that no vendor, helper, or those making a living in the market will lose their livelihood once the new market will stand.

The developer has given the vendors its word that “there shall be no displacement of all vendors registered with the Market Authority.”

However, the Carbon-hanong Alyansa said the Cebu City Market Authority has yet to forward to the city council the promised master list of registered vendors.

“Until we see our names on that list, we will fear losing our families’ means of living,” they said.

In a press briefing last July 30, Manuel Louie Ferrer, president of Cebu2World Development Inc., the subsidiary of Megawide undertaking Carbon market’s redevelopment, said the leaders of the various market associations in Carbon had verified C2W’s list of vendors as the lists were signed by the association leaders.

Adverse conditions

The group also said Friday that after the demolition operation in the old market, “not one vendor failed to complain about the big drop in income.”

“How much more will their income go down if all ambulant vendors are moved, as planned, to the viaduct where customers will hardly go?” the group said.

“Under such adverse conditions, how many of us will still be around after two years or until the private market of SM-Megawide is done. We have reasons to suspect we are being slowly and gradually eliminated from the list,” the group added.

SM is not a party to the Carbon Market modernization.

The alliance of vendors also alleged that they have reliable information that some vendors have three to 12 stalls in the interim market and this is a flagrant violation of the “one family, one stall” policy of the Market Code of 2017.

The supplemental MOA did not also change the fees and charges in the public market and no moratorium was imposed on the increase in rent, and entrance, maintenance and parking fees.

There is also no stipulated limit to the percentage of increase in rent and other fees, which will allow the developer to increase at will, the group said.

The group also pointed out that Sitio Bato is still included in the project “in spite of the fact that it has been declared part of a Slum Improvement and Resettlement Program and a Socialized Housing Site per Proclamation No. 2441 and Ordinance No. 1866 of the Cebu City Council.”

With the reasons provided by the group, they alleged that the supplemental MOA is an instrument of deception intended to frustrate those who are against the privatization of the Carbon Public Market.

Demands

As their demands, they urged Rama to provide financial assistance to the “vendor-victims of demolition” for two years and to enforce the “one family, one stall” policy.

Rama should also produce the master list of all vendors who have stalls in the market and produce a floor plan of the new market that will show the stall number of every vendor.

A moratorium on rentals and other fees for a period of 10 years should also be imposed.

The increase in rent and other fees should not be totally entrusted to Megawide after the moratorium period, they added.

“Do not ignore us, but arrange to dialogue with Megawide and stakeholders, especially Carbon-hanon, on what can be done about our rightful demands,” the group said.

In a statement sent to SunStar Cebu Friday, Megawide Construction Corp. (MCC) said everything about the project is being done to make sure that the livelihood of the vendors will not be sacrificed.

“We have already explained on many occasions in the past our goal in providing a better Carbon without sacrificing the livelihood of the vendors. Everything that we are doing is for the good of Cebu,” MCC said.

No cure

Carbon-hanong Alyansa said the supplemental MOA was supposed to cure the defects in the original JVA that they had complained about, among them, the failure to conduct a public hearing before the JVA was signed, the insufficiency of required documents, the inclusion of lots that the City does not own, the City’s small share in the market revenues, and the demolition and conversion of the Carbon Units 1, 2 and 3 buildings into a commercial hub.

“However, we see no essential difference between the contents of the Supplemental MOA and the original JVA,” the group said.

The group belittled the increase in Megawide’s annual guaranteed payments to the City to P50 million stipulated in the supplemental MOA, from the former P5 million, saying the money would still be taken from the collection of rent from vendors, and that control of the project would still be with Megawide for 50 years with Megawide still collecting and receiving all the revenues from the project.

Megawide officials have said the new main public market will occupy a portion of what was Freedom Park and Warwick Barracks, Unit 1 and Unit 2. Unit 3, on the other hand, will be turned into a transport terminal.

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph