AFTER a glimpse of the seaports and airports of Bacolod City and Iloilo City, the investors’ team continued to observe the surroundings of the main old downtown areas of Bacolod and Iloilo.
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Iloilo City’s Calle Real is the old downtown filled with heritage buildings, most of them preserved.
The team also observed sidewalk vendors but they seemed not really filling all sides of sidewalks; they were somewhat orderly.
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In Bacolod City, the team drove around the downtown just a block from the public plaza. The investors were shocked. Every side of the sidewalks of commercial buildings were jammed with vendors; one could not anymore see the main stores of the buildings.
There should be government control on these to make the city an investors’ dream place, one of the team members said.
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Bacolod City’s downtown was tagged a horrible vendors’ paradise. You see more illegal vendors and roadside vendors than the stores in buildings. Why is this being allowed by the city government?
It’s a sign of disorganized governance or plain tolerance of the intolerable for political reasons. This is not nice for investors.
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In Iloilo City, you could seem to count with your fingers the sidewalk vendors; in Bacolod you need more hands and feet to count them, said a team member. There has got to be change.
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In the afternoon the team members pulled their hankies upon seeing a road converted into a fish vendors’ market with stinking water draining to the street. Oh my, said a team member. Talo ang vendors sa Manila.
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In Iloilo City, the team saw the city streets not being made into jeep terminals. In contrast, Bacolod’s main roads have become transport terminals, thus making the roadways tight and inconvenient.
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This column greets Efren Sucaldito, Joeboy Agriam, Cleofe Albiso, Doc Ruben Ramirez, June Malones, Vic Facultad, Evelyn Moriente, Macky Amores, Janjan Po, Dondon Luz, Harold Geronimo, and Ping Jimenea. (tootsjimenez@yahoo.com/PN)
