DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 15 September) – The city council on Tuesday approved the conduct of hearings on the objection of the Agdao Integrated Market Vendors Association to the raffling of stalls inside the public market held on August 24.
The hearings will be handled by the committee on government enterprises and privatization.
The raffling was based on City Ordinance No. 0291-17 mandating the market committee of the city council to conduct the raffling to determine who among the new applicants should be awarded the new stalls.
In their letter dated August 23 addressed to Vice Mayor Melchor Quitain Jr., the vendors said the raffling may affect the relations they have built among themselves and with their customers who, like them, have grown accustomed to their arrangement.
They cited that the original physical setup has been followed by most stallholders since 1987.
The 219 meat and fish vendors who signed the letter said the 27 vacant stalls should only be raffled to the new applicants as majority of them are actual awardees of the market.
Quitain’s office received the letter also on August 23, but the raffling pushed through the next day as scheduled.
In the same letter, the vendors said “we have not been involved in any way from planning and design of the new building even up to this time. No dialogue was had between the vendors and the city government officials concerned. We were never asked of our suggestions, inputs, ideas.”
“There are countless flaws we have initially seen of late and more so when we get to start using the new building. And we are just told to obey and accept what is already done. And now this raffling,” they added. (Miah Christine Bontilao/MindaNews)
