BACOLOD City – After more than three years of waiting, around 100 vendors are finally moving in the new public market of Barangay Sum-ag in this city.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has scheduled their transfer any time next week as soon as the energization of the facility will be completed.
At present, the vendors are doing business beside the national road, or along the barangay’s Araneta Street, adjacent to the new public market.
Despite the scheduled transfer, Engr. Abraham Villareal of the DPWH-Bacolod District Engineering Office, clarified that the construction of the new public market is not yet fully complete.
“The project is almost done but it needs about P10 million more for its total completion,” he said.
He, however, assured that the facility could already be utilized by next week.
“Once the electricity connection will be installed they can transfer already. Also, the public has long been clamoring for the transfer of the vendors due to the disturbance caused along the national road,” Villareal said.
The construction the new Sum-ag public market commenced in 2021 following the release of the first tranche of the budget amounting to P16 million. The second tranche of P25 million was released in 2022 and the final tranche of another P25 million was released in 2023.
Villareal added that Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez has committed that the city government will finds ways to provide the needed additional budget for the completion of the public market./PN
