BACOLOD City – In response to grievances raised by some market vendors, the city government has outlined the criteria for participating in the raffle to determine stall allocations at the Central Market.
Due to the restricted number of stalls in the fish section, a raffle was conducted last Friday.
To qualify, vendors must conduct regular business, hold no outstanding debts, and have possessed a stall prior to the market’s renovation.
“Out of 104 market vendors, only 90 were allocated stalls through the raffle. Fourteen were left without stalls, and five were excluded from the master list due to outstanding dues with the city,” said City Administrator Pacifico Maghari III.
These five vendors have accumulated debts ranging between P80,000 to P100,000 since 2016.
Councilor Celia Flor, the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Markets chair, added, “The disqualified vendors had previously closed their stalls because they couldn’t afford them. We monitored them for weeks, and they were no longer selling.”
The Local Market Committee (LMC) is scheduled to convene this Wednesday to discuss the situation of the 19 fish vendors. Maghari said they have identified a potential location for these vendors, but the final decision rests with the LMC and Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez.
Jennifer Dela Peña, a fish vendor not included in the master list, told the media she has operated in the market for nearly 30 years. However, market supervisor records indicate she has two months’ worth of unpaid fees.
Dela Peña insisted that her mother had been consistently paying the daily P15 “arkabala” fee./PN
