MANILA, Philippines – The Baclaran flea market may be enjoying brisk sales, what with the holidays around the corner, but it has earned the ire of some members of the community there.

Reason: the makeshift stalls in the market have been clogging the main road leading to Baclaran Church.

In fact, the Metro Manila Development Authority had earlier cleared Redemptorist Road of vendors due to complaints from churchgoers and pedestrians.

In an interview, Roal Zapata, a lector at Baclaran Church, criticized officials of the barangay and the city government for the mess the flea market has made in front of the church.

“I don’t understand why the barangay and the city government allowed these vendors to sell their wares on a national road,” Zapata said over the phone.

He claimed that some members of the police and of Barangay Baclaran were benefiting from the “illegal” flea market, a claim later refuted by a barangay official.

Zapata said he was able to get a copy of a receipt that purportedly came from the city government where a tenant paid P30,000 for a stall measuring one square meter.

“The fee was called ‘goodwill’ money,” Zapata said. “Aside from this, there are people from the barangay who go around the market to collect P180 daily from stall operators.”

In a separate interview, barangay administrator Rolando Cailes dismissed the allegations and admitted the flea market has been an “old, recurring problem.”

“I don’t know anything about these supposed collections as far as the barangay and the city government are concerned,” said Cailes, who used to be barangay captain of Baclaran for 13 years. “We collect from stalls what we call an ‘arkabala’ which costs P5 to P10 depending on the size of the stall.”

Cailes said the fee is sanctioned by the city government and they get tickets for the arkabala from the city treasury.