ASIDE from the distance, there was little to complain about the new Mandaue City public market for Linilda Arminion.
The 43-year-old Arminion, an eatery owner and resident of barangay Cabancalan, Mandaue City, said the new market is spacious and clean.
But it’s located at the reclamation area which is quite a distance from her home.
Even if her husband can’t drive her to the market, Arminion said she better get used to it.
“The people will look for the public market and our sources for the meat and vegetables are there,” she said.
The inauguration of the new public market in Mandaue City began with a Mass at 7 a.m followed by a blessing of the stalls and ribbon-cutting done by Mayor Jonas Cortes, the City Council and Provincial Board (PB) members.
“There were problems at the start but eventually they will be resolved and serve as opportunities towards our success as a city,” Cortes said.
Former mayor and now PB member Thadeo Ouano was thankful to Cortes for completing the project.
“I conceptualized this, it was my dream, and I’m thankful to Jonas… it was good that he continued it,” Ouano said.
He said he hopes the new public market will become a tourist spot and asked city residents to help make it clean.
Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale lauded the market for being environmental-friendly due to Cortes’s proposal to install electric cars that will transport buyers within the market premises.
She said the new Mandaue City public market has its own water treatment system, the first for Metro Cebu. Stall owners like Fe Arriesgado took comfort in that fact.
An owner of ‘Bianca’s’ stall in the new market’s food court section, Arriesgado said she sold food in the old market in barangay Centro for the past 22 years.
It was only yesterday that she sold money in admittedly cleaner surroundings.
She said she experienced two fire incidents in her old spot in the Centro public market.
Arriesgado said she also used to worry about the rains since it would cause floods and cause foul odor to spread to her stall and other owners.
Now, Arriesgado said she was happy that her customers still found her in her new spot in the air-conditioned food court.
Market Administrator Mosuline Suliva, said 99 percent of the vendors transferred yesterday.
The old market site will be kept off limits from sidewalk vendors who will be caught by the Traffic Enforcement Agency (TEAM) if they decide to do business there, Sulliva said.
The market will be open from 3:00 a.m. up to 10:30 p.m. while the night market in the rooftop will start 7:00 p.m. up to 4:00 a.m.
Sulliva said they will also install a closed circuit TV camera system worth P2.5 million in the market.
He said the Bureau of Internal Revenue will also transfer their office to the new city market. /Jucell Marie P. Cuyos and Fe Marie Dumaboc