MANILA, Philippines – This time, the Manila government is bent on implementing a zero-vendor policy on the city’s streets.

Mayor Alfredo Lim announced on Wednesday that vendors would no longer be allowed on major roads and sidewalks.

Ret. Col. Carlos Baltazar, head of the city’s department of public services and the hawkers’ division, said clearing operations would be undertaken to remove thousands of vendors, including those on sidewalks, on Roxas Boulevard, Quezon Boulevard, Rizal Avenue, Taft Avenue, and the whole stretch of C.M. Recto (from Legarda to North Harbor).

The move would also dismantle well-known flea markets in Plaza Miranda, Carriedo and Divisoria.

Baltazar said clearing operations started on Wednesday, particularly in areas where the procession of the Black Nazarene would pass today.

“We have instruction to clean up all the districts of Manila but we have to do it phase by phase, so we will start with the major roads,” Baltazar said. “Obstructions of any kind will not be allowed.”

Lim tried the same move last year, but it apparently did not succeed because of “humanitarian reasons.”

“The zero-vendor policy has long been adopted,” Baltazar told the Inquirer. “But the vendors appealed to the mayor saying they have no other means of livelihood, so Mayor Lim became lenient to them and allowed them again to vend.”

But this time, Lim means business, Baltazar said.

Ric de Guzman, Lim’s chief of staff, said displaced vendors can go to Muelle de la Industria in Escolta where a 24-hour “pedestrian mall” similar to Hong Kong’s famous Night Market would be developed.