Manila vendors to push through with market holiday

A noise barrage at the Trabajo public market in Sampaloc, Manila, was the answer of vendors to Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada’s threat that he would order the arrest of anyone joining Monday’s “market holiday.”

More than 200 members of the New Trabajo Market Vendors Association (NTMVA) banged on empty pots and pans at 11 a.m. Sunday to protest the city government’s plan to “modernize” at least seven of the city’s public markets through joint ventures with the private sector.

According to the vendors, the scheme was a ploy to privatize the public markets, resulting in higher rental fees and their displacement, and eventually, the loss of their source of livelihood.

On Saturday, the mayor warned the vendors that no one has the authority to close the markets, adding that he would have them arrested should they go ahead with their plan to stop selling goods on Monday.

“We are not afraid. We will push through with our ‘market holiday’ on Monday,” NTMVA spokesman John Rey Boquiran told the Inquirer.

The Save Manila Public Market Alliance (SAMPAL), a newly formed group of market vendors in the city, earlier announced that the Trabajo, Sampaloc, Quinta, Santa Ana and San Andres markets would not open on Monday since their estimated 1,700 vendors would join a daylong protest ending in a march to City Hall.

Boquiran explained that vendors and stall owners from Trabajo Market would join the mass action since they were opposed to the expected hike in rental prices which may affect the prices of basic commodities.

“It may even lead to some vendors just closing their stores because of their inability to pay the rent,” he said.

Boquiran clarified, however, that they were not against the development of public markets although they were against their privatization.

“The city government can, for example, use the estimated P200,000 per month they collect from the vendors here at Trabajo Market for renovation,” he said.

“We just want to let the government know that we do not like the idea of making public markets private. We are for joint ventures but only with the cooperatives within the markets,” SAMPAL spokesman Ram Carlo Bautista said.–Maricar B. Brizuela