DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 May)—Although a new building was built for the dry goods and variety (or groceries) vendors at the Agdao Farmers’ Market here, they are complaining that they are not selling well at their assigned section at the second floor.
Thus, market administrators have allowed them to temporarily sell at the ground floor at certain times of the day so they could earn some “decent money.”
Ligaya Uba, president of the Agdao Public Market Dry Goods and Variety Section, said that the permanent location assigned to them by the City Economic Enterprise (CEE) is the second floor, far from the vegetable vendors on the ground floor of the old building.
The ground floor of the new building is currently assigned to the meat, fish, and poultry vendors.
But the market administrators, headed by market supervisors Gerardo Castillo, have allowed the dry goods and grocery vendors to sell at the ground floor, filling some vacant stalls or assigned sidewalk spots, from 3 p.m. to 9 a.m. on weekdays, and the whole day on holidays and weekends.
Uba said that they were earning more before the three-story new building when they were still selling at the makeshift stalls where the new building now stands.
Furthermore, they were just beside the vegetable vendors, who are assigned at the ground floor of the old building and thus more visible to the market-goers. The old building is now undergoing renovation.
Uba said that with their current location hidden in the second floor, they are forced to sell vegetables at the ground floor “to earn profit.”
She said that the other vendors would bring their wares to the ground floor, then bring them up to the second floor by 9 a.m.
“It is tiring, but they need to earn,” Uba said, adding that some of the vendors fell ill because of the extra work.
“That’s why we are asking the CEE if we can please be permanently situated at the ground floor,” she added.
In a radio interview on Monday, Castillo said it has been more than a month since they started to allow the grocery section vendors to sell vegetables at the ground floor. He added that since then, “their business is doing good.”
But amid supposed CEE’s interventions, Uba admitted some original lessees in the second floor would rather sell their products at the ground floor.
When MindaNews visited the market, there were several signs of “surrendered stalls” and notices of closure apparently due to failure to pay fees.
Uba said 11 vendors do not use their stalls on the second floor even though they are paying their monthly rental fees. Instead, they store their products inside their parked vehicles, then sell at the ground floor early in the morning.
For the older vendors like herself, now 51 years old, who cannot bring their items at the ground floor, they will just have to settle for less sales, Uba said.
For her, allowing them to sell at the ground floor at certain times of the day is not the long-term solution. Uba said they requested Councilor Augusto Javier “Javi” Campos III, of the second district, to help them with a more permanent intervention: to allow them to rent vacant stalls on the ground floor. Agdao Proper is under the second district.
In a privilege speech during the City Council session on Tuesday, Campos said that the Agdao vendors have expressed dismay over the less income, the high rental fees, peddlers, slippery floors, non-functional walkalator, and disorganized market sectioning layout.
“There are real issues that are affecting our enterprise and we cannot allow this to continue,” Campos said.
For Castillo’s part, he said a similar proposal from the Agdao market vendors has been submitted to and noted by the CEE. He said they are trying to find a “win-win solution” for the issue. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
