SAN JOSE, Antique – Quarantine restrictions in Antique due to the coronavirus pandemic have displaced ambulant and market vendors.
Antique is under general community quarantine (GCQ) but with heightened restrictions until the end of August.
This classification prompted the provincial government to impose a barangay border control limiting the movement of residents to essential transactions only.
Vendors Celeriza Melecio of Barangay San Juan and Rita Pasaquian of Barangay Esperanza II both in the municipality of Sibalom are selling native delicacies at the town’s public market.
They said their incomes have been affected since the implementation of the enhanced restriction.
“Before, I could earn as much as P5,000 per day from selling delicacies,” Pasaquian said, adding that now she could barely earn P1,000 in a day because few people go to the market.
On the other hand, Melecio said some of their fellow ambulant vendors temporarily stopped selling rice cakes and other delicacies.
The Provincial Board asked the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to extend assistance to the vendors.
“About 50 to 100 vendors in every town are affected,” according to Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) member Karmila Rose Dimamay who sponsored the resolution asking DOLE to support the vendors.
“Assistance in the form of livelihood or money that can be extended will be of great help to the vendors,” said Dimamay, chairperson of the committee on foreign relations, labor and employment. (PNA)
