Parking lot turns into weekend market for Dagupan’s jobless

DAGUPAN CITY—The parking space of a shopping mall in Lucao District here has been turned into a weekend market where bangus (milkfish), freshly harvested from the city’s ponds, are charcoal-grilled to perfection.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, whose family owns the CSI City Mall, says the weekend market aims to show that the Dagupan bangus, the city’s top produce, “is the best-tasting in the world.”

She says every weekend, the parking space becomes an al fresco dining area, with tables and tents put up for people looking for freshly grilled bangus.

“Customers say bangus sold at the weekend market really tastes delicious and different from those produced in other towns. This is our way of helping promote Dagupan bangus, which is really the pride of our city,” Fernandez says.

The project, she says, also aims to help local fish growers recover from the impact of the fishkill that hit the western Pangasinan towns of Anda and Bolinao in May this year.

Sales dropped as a result of news over the supposed sale of “double dead” bangus from the fishkill.

Although Dagupan was not hit by the fishkill, the sale of bangus here also dropped after the disaster.

Fresh bangus are available at the weekend market, which is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

The weekend market also sells oyster burgers, grilled oysters, barbecue, bibingka (rice cake), bocayo (coconut candy) and guavas. Fernandez says public schools that grow vegetables are also welcome to sell at the market. She says the project would give unemployed Dagupeños a chance to earn a little money.

“When I go around the city, I see many unemployed residents. Many tell me that they know a skill but they have no capital. That is why I thought of putting up the weekend market to help them,” she says.

Vendors do not pay rent to CSI, but the venture is limited only to Dagupeños who have no steady sources of income, she says. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon