THE CITY’S anti-hawking task force began clearing away ambulant vendors from major city streets last Thursday urging them to relocate to a pre-designated place, it was gathered during the Patrima Kapihan at the Philippine Information Agency office.
The task force — composed of elements from the anti-hawking office, the city police, and the public order and safety office (POSO) — first cleared sidewalks along the streets of Jovellanos, Galvan, Nueva, Zamora and the front section of CSI Market Square, according to anti-hawking chief Butch Gutierrez.
The team vowed to clear obstructions in all sections of the city including Arellano, Tapuac, Perez and the whole stretch of A. B. Fernandez avenue.
POSO chief Robert Erfe-Mejia, who joined Gutierrez and city legal officer Geraldine Baniqued at the weekly Kapihan forum, said that clearing the sidewalks of vendors would reduce traffic congestion by at least 40 percent. He noted that pedestrians are forced to use the road itself when the sidewalks are full of vendors, which practice, if not checked, would also endanger pedestrians who might be sideswiped bypassing vehicles.
Some 200 vendors are estimated to be scattered in various sections of the downtown area.
Gutierrez said they can all be accommodated at the MacAdore compound and ground floor which can take in easily up to 235 vendors.
Drawing of lots was held last Thursday for the allocation of spaces. Each vendor will pay P500 weekly for a 1 meter by 1 ½ meter stall, he said.
The sidewalk vendors may also opt to occupy the now vacant stalls at the second floor of the new Malimgas market, he added. Three vendors can talk among themselves on who would be named as the legal occupant of a stall and divide among themselves the corresponding monthly rental, he suggested.
Baniqued said that hawkers may soon feel the pain of paying a fine of up to P1,000 once the newly-passed ordinance against ambulant vending is implemented. The old measure only imposes a fine of P200 for a violator.
The new measure is up for implementation after its publication in a newspaper.
The city legal officer, meanwhile, clarified that the anti-hawking measure was not biased against Muslim traders, noting that there are as many Christian vendors plying their trade in the sidewalks.
Muslim traders, in radio interviews, have complained that they were being singled out in the sidewalk-clearing campaigns. They also said that business is poor at the Mac Adore compound prompting them to rather look for other areas where they can ply their trade.
The ordinance penalizes not only the sidewalk vendors but also owners of establishments who allow ambulant vendors to occupy the front part of their stores. The city government met last Wednesday with business establishment owners and other affected sectors to inform them of the salient points of the new measure.
Some storeowners themselves display their goods right at the sidewalks practically blocking pedestrians, it was observed.