New P98-M public market to rise in Lucena

RUINS of the old market in Lucena City. DELFIN T. MALLARI JR./INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

LUCENA CITY—The city government has launched another big ticket infrastructure project with groundbreaking rites on Monday for a P98-million new public market.

Mayor Roderick Alcala said the project would be completed in a year.

Funds, he said, would come from an P84 million loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines, and fire insurance benefits from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

The new market building, designed by the city engineer’s office, will rise on a 2,500-square-meter lot on the site of the former market gutted by fire last year.

It will house a dry section with more than 400 stalls, each of them measuring three meters by two meters. The ground floor will also have parking space for more than 30 vehicles.

Alcala led local officials, businessmen and market vendors in the groundbreaking ceremony of the project. Bidding for the project was won by a Lucena-based construction firm, R.V. Laborte Builders.

The two-story old public market was destroyed by fire on May 28 last year. Spared from the blaze was a two-story wet market building that was separated by a narrow road from the burned market.

The displaced vendors are currently occupying a temporary market some two blocks from their former site. Most expressed concern, however, that they might be unable to return to the new market once it is completed.

“We hope that politics and influence of local officials will not get in the way of choosing vendors for the new market,” said one displaced vendor.

Alcala allayed such fears, saying the new market would be rented “exclusively for Lucena vendors only.”