With MMDA away, vendors back in ‘cleared’ Baclaran

Only days after the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Parañaque City government celebrated the first anniversary of the clearing of Baclaran, the vendors have returned, occupying the side of the service road closest to the church in the area.

As of Sunday, only a handful of them moved to the other side of the road, where the city government had set up rows of green tents for their use.

As a result, of the five lanes of the Roxas Boulevard service road, only two were passable to vehicles. One was occupied by vendors’ stalls while the other two were occupied by the tents.

Zero sales

“We tried to go there but we didn’t sell anything. Zero,” said 61-year-old Puring (not her real name) who sells dried fish and “macapuno.”

“No person would cross the road and risk their lives getting hit by moving cars just to buy something,” she added.

At her old spot near the church gates, Puring said she was assured of earning at least P500 by late afternoon.

‘Temporary solution’

The Parañaque City government came up with the “temporary solution” of putting up the rows of green tents after it failed to implement its goal of moving the vendors around the church to a giant flea market across
Roxas Boulevard by end-2017.

The tents—bearing Mayor Edwin Olivarez’s signature color —each measures 1.5 meters by 2 meters were meant to be used by the around 800 vendors free of charge.

In a memorandum of agreement signed earlier this month, the city government and the MMDA agreed to clear Roxas Boulevard, Quirino Avenue and the streets around Baclaran Church.

The vendors, however, are playing cat and mouse with the MMDA personnel.

“We run to the tents while the MMDA is here. Once they’re gone, we go back to the side streets,” said Beth, one of the vendors.