Balintawak Cloverleaf market to stay open for now; vendors happy

MANILA — The Quezon City Regional Trial Court has granted the Balintawak Cloverleaf Market Corporation (BCMC) a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the Quezon City government not to close for now the Cloverleaf Market operating in the city for almost half a century.

In a resolution for TRO issued by presiding Judge Marilou Runes-Tamang of QC-RTC Branch 98 on Wednesday, she ordered the respondents and all those acting on their behalf to suspend the implementation of the “ceast and desist” order dated Jan 18, 2016, and “the closure of the Balintawak Cloverleaf Market Corporation (BCMC)” order dated Jan. 29 for a period of twenty days.

Runes-Tamang granted the resolution in favor of BCMC citing the “necessity to preserve the status quo pending determination of whether or not to grant the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction.”

The judge, in her order, also considered the evidence presented during the hearing and the issues raised by the petitioners, the possible repercussions on the buying public and the “inevitable displacement of the market vendors.”

In a statement, former Albay congressman Edcel C. Lagman, now the BCMC counsel, considered the move a “significant victory of private enterprise and lowly market vendors against the precipitate closure order issued by a local government.”

Market vendors also welcomed and hailed the issuance of the TRO.

Lagman points to a P25-billion mixed use land development plan known as the Ayala ‘Cloverleaf Project’ as the reason behind the market’s closure. The expansion of the project might be obstructed by the market site, which was opened in 1966, Lagman added.

In a statement to the press, Lagman maintained it became evident during the hearing that “the Balintawak Cloverleaf Market and the other neighboring ‘Balintawak markets’ were singled out for inspections despite City Market Administrator Noel Soliven’s admission that other private markets also had violations but were not issued mission orders.

Lawyer and BCMC president Rodolfo C. de Guzman, Sr., meanwhile, said “the market has gained tremendous goodwill as a veritable source of cheap vegetables which are the principal commodities sold at the market.”

The hearing on the writ of preliminary injunction set on Feb. 17 at 8:30 am.

“The TRO issued by a lower court is good for only 20 days but a writ of preliminary injunction subsists until the principal action is adjudicated,” the counsel of BCMC added.  SFM