RAFFLE. An ukay-ukay stall owner drops his name in a raffle drum inside the Davao City Recreation Center on Monday, August 8. Out of the estimate 600 stall owners of ukay-ukay, 0nly 137 names of venders were selected by drawing lots. Those who were chosen will be allowed to sell at the night market in Roxas Avenue. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY — Hundreds of food and accessory venders, and a group of massage therapists attended the meeting called for by the City Government on Tuesday morning, August 9 at the Davao City Recreation Center, hoping to get a slot and be allowed to sell at the Roxas night market.
Among them was 38-year old Marylou Gerandio who sells fruit shakes for almost a year now along Roxas Avenue.
Gerandio said that she really wants to return to Roxas night market as her earning reaches a net of P5,000 per night with the volume of customers in the area.
However, from almost 700 venders, the city will only be allowing at least 353 venders of food and non-food items in the night market along Roxas Avenue here.
In an interview with Davao Today during the second day of the meeting with the night market venders, City Transportation and Traffic Management chief Rhodelio Poliquit said there will only be 100 slots for venders of accessories, 137 for ukay-ukay or second-hand clothing, more or less 102 for food venders and 14 slots for massage therapists.
Last year there were 166 accessory vendors, 78 food vendors and 353 ukay-ukay vendors. There are also 14 associations of massage therapists and 30 manicurists.
The City now raffles who gets a slot to sell in the night market.
Due to reported cases of violations of rules by some venders in the night market, City Mayor Sara Duterte ordered its closure on Wednesday, August 3.
“I have ordered the closure of the night market because of a number of violations and complaints,” said Duterte.
Duterte said the venders “have been very defiant of the rules and regulations set by the city government.”
The following are the issues and concerns she cited:
1. Venders refuse to follow the one-family-one-stall rule
2. Venders insist on their preferred locations
3. Presence of stalls that are run by financiers, but are managed by dummies
4. Venders sub-leasing stalls to others
5. Venders who claim they were able to buy or secure rights or permits over their preferred stalls, insisting on selling their products, even if they are not included in the official list of allowed sellers.
Stricter policies
Poliquit also said they will be imposing stricter measures to ensure discipline among the venders.
The names drawn from the raffle “should be the one who will sell in the night market.”
If a vender is caught cheating in whichever way during the raffle, he will be permanently banned from selling in the night market.
The city government will also issue an identification card to the valid seller and make him sign a contract.
Poliquit also said that they will be inspecting the stalls to ensure that those who were given the right to sell at the night market are valid sellers.
“Pagtinda nila naay random inspection ang CTTMO, three times siya nga masakpan nga ang nagtinda dili mao, pwede nato siya ipahawa na sa iyang pwesto (We will have a random inspection, if the valid seller is not manning the store for three inspections, he will be removed from the slot),” said Poliquit.
However, if they find a valid reason during their investigation, the city government will consider, said Poliquit.
Poliquit said that they will submit the list of the venders to the City Administrator’s office and will still wait for the order of the city mayor on when to open the night market.
From January to July this year the city earned P2.98 million. In 2015, the city earned P5,473,421.56 million in taxes from the night market, more than a double of the P2,242,867.07 million earned in 2014. (davaotoday.com)
