TF Divisoria chief axed by Estrada blames racketeers

A Manila councilor who once headed a task group to organize Divisoria vendors in a bid to stamp out rampant extortion in the market district claimed that syndicates perpetrating this protection racket sowed “complaints” that led to his recent ouster.

“They will crush you because you’re changing the system,” Councilor Dennis Alcoreza told the INQUIRER as he pointed to a certain “Cheche” and “Carol Bakulaw” as among the syndicate leaders.

Alcoreza used to head Task Force Divisoria until Mayor Joseph Estrada replaced him on Tuesday. The mayor said the District 1 councilor was ineffective “because he’s a politician.”

The mayor and former president gave the job instead to City Administrator Simeon Garcia, a former congressman and chief of staff of his son, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.

According to Alcoreza, corruption was already pervasive in Divisoria with each vendor coughing up P350 a day and the money going to the pockets of barangay officials, policemen, traffic enforcers and members of City Hall’s Department of Public Service.

“We wanted to erase that by legitimizing the vendors’ (operations),” he told the Inquirer. “When they are issued business permits and they pay the right taxes to the city government, they will not be vulnerable to extortion.”

Before he was replaced, he helped form the United Sidewalk Vendors of Divisoria Association Inc. to help the city government identify and organize the vendors.

By becoming members of the association, Alcoreza said, vendors would be less vulnerable to syndicates who make money by applying for special permits from City Hall in big batches and then selling the permits at higher prices.

In response to complaints about the fees being collected by the association, the councilor clarified that the P1,075 yearly regulatory fee was for the special permit, while the P620 monthly concession fee was the P20 per square meter per day hawker’s fee being charged by the city government.

He maintained that both fees were being remitted to the city treasurer’s office.

Alcoreza said the only collection going to the association itself was the P110 daily maintenance fee from members occupying the orange tents on Recto Avenue.

There was also a plan to build more permanent stalls for the vendors, he said.