The La Trinidad Liga ng mga Barangay has passed a resolution asking the Strawberry Festival executive committee to allow them to lease out their allotted space at the trade fair in order to generate funds to support various social activities.
Municipal Administrator Attorney Miller Quintin noted that the league rents out the space at “commercial” rates.
"Talagang mayroon silang space the only problem is they offer commercial which the rates are much higher from the supposed agro-industrial," he said.
The leasing of the space allotted for the Liga during the celebration of the Strawberry Festival could be a direct source of funding to support different social activities which includes monetary support to its ailing members.
Several members of the Liga ng mga Barangay had been suffering from medical ailments which require continuous and regular medical consultation and evaluation, purchase of medicines, including hospital confinement and treatment suffering from cancer and earlier death of two officials from cancer and kidney failure.
On Tuesday, March 6, the Strawberry Fest executive committee adopted the new existing arrangement of stalls with the presence of exhibitor Strawberry Festival Trade Fair organizer Bertha Elwas with ABC president Teddy Quintos.
Both compromised and made clarifications as the exhibitor is given the additional 16 stalls inside the trade fair.
"She is willing to forego any objection to that competition given the opportunity to have additional stalls at a discounted price" Quintin added.
Elwas last Friday raised her concern in the conduct of the Strawberry Trade Fair when the Liga decided to convert the 16 stalls slated for agro-industrial trade fair for commercial stalls and had authorized another organizer to market the said stalls to vendors.
"As the authorized organizer for this event, I had vested so much time and capital to coordinate the activities of the events at the trade fair area. I understand the Liga ng mga Barangay's purpose of raising funds to finance their various activities. I would like to take the initiative to manage the rentals of these barangay stalls on their behalf should they pursue these endeavor," said Elwas.
Quintin said the Liga is supposed to operate as agro-industrial that they remove from the ambit of authority of the executive committee because it would be in violation.
"It would be sanctioned by the Sangguniang Bayan as special program for them it is not part of the strawberry fest," he said.
The Strawberry Fest Trade Fair has already been opened while the 16 barangays pending approval of their existence which still needed to be approved by the Sanggunian Bayan during the next local council meeting as the activity of the Liga would separate from the strawberry trade fair.
"Procedurally wrong, they should have made manifestation earlier so that it would not come to this point na magkaroon ng complications," said Quintin asking for the barangay not to do the same in the future.
The 16 barangays for their particular program is subject to pass financial statements for the use of the booths and that they are closed on the same date as the trade fair on April 20.