BACOLOD City – Flower vendors have “peacefully” moved on Monday to their new site along Ferrero Street at the Reclamation Area, behind the BAYS Center.
The city government provided the site but the Bacolod Plaza Flower Vendors Association plans to have some sort of autonomy, a local government official said.
Executive Assistant Ernesto Pineda, cluster head for sectoral concerns, said there was no violent reaction from the vendors during the transfer.
They volunteered in taking down their structures around the public plaza.
The Enforcement Unit of the City Legal Office helped in the demolition of the structures that started days before Monday.
Glen Amar, president of the flower vendors’ association, has assured the city government that the public plaza will be cleared of vendors and structures by Nov. 12.
“They did it,” Pineda said, noting that the transfer of the 18 vendors was “peaceful.”
The transfer was in compliance with a local government order to clear the plaza and move the flower vendors to a new designated site.
At the blessing of the new site on the same day, Pineda assured the vendors that the city government provided them the site and the structure where they may display their products free of charge.
But the flower vendors were asking the city government to award them the stalls so they could process their business permit, said Pineda.
Their association was also already applying for electricity and water connections with the Central Negros Electric Cooperative and the Bacolod City Water District, respectively, said Pineda.
Earlier Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the city government plans to transform the public plaza into wholesome family-centered park, but not before the necessary rehabilitation work.
According to the Sangguniang Panlungsod resolution that sought the removal of the flower vendors, the traders must be moved somewhere else to “allow the full implementation of the rehabilitation, improvement and beautification of the Bacolod Public Plaza pursuant to the plans designed by the City Engineer’s Office.”/PN
