THE City Government of Bacolod will relocate only 14 occupants of the Vendors’ Plaza in Barangay 12 who are selling of fish and vegetables.
City Administrator John Orola Friday, October 6, confirmed that based on their validation, out of 100 occupants, only 11 are fish vendors and three are vegetable vendors.
He said the 11 fish vendors will be transferred to Libertad Public Market while the three others will be relocated to Burgos Public Market.
“They are the only legitimate vendors because they had applied under the previous administration. We will relocate them while the rehabilitation of the facility is ongoing,” he added.
Orola noted that most of the occupants are doing business like eatery, sari-sari store, computer shop, and some of them have even put up a dwelling place and a warehouse.
“We have already scheduled to remove them to rehabilitate the Vendors’ Plaza and to accommodate the legitimate vendors,” he said.
Last month, the city officials held a dialogue with the Vendors’ Plaza occupants after the City Government planned to rehabilitate the facility.
City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said that as soon as they have the names of the legitimate vendors, they will start the clearing operations.
“We have to clean it up to rehabilitate the facility and to revive the legitimacy of the vendors,” he said.
Orola said he will hold a meeting with the flower vendors selling at the Bacolod public plaza next week to discuss their transfer behind the Bacolod Arts and Youth Sports Center or at the Vendors’ Plaza.
He said they already discussed the plan with the Diocese of Bacolod, which owns the portion of public plaza being occupied by the vendors.
Orola explained that the public plaza is governed by two entities, the City Government and the Diocese of Bacolod.
He said the Diocese issued a usufruct agreement to the City Government to manage the public plaza.
Majority of the flower vendors are not in favor the plan of the city to transfer their stalls to the Vendors’ Plaza.