Vendors fight Pampanga market transfer

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—More than 300 vendors have asked the Pampanga provincial board to stop the transfer of Apalit public market only to be told that it has no power to act on their problem.

Board Member Ananias Canlas Jr., a lawyer, said the vendors’ petition should be addressed by the town government or other appropriate bodies.

The new site, a 6,000-square-meter lot within a residential subdivision, is about 300 meters from the old market, which was built in the 1940s.

The vendors pushed for the old market’s renovation instead. Elvigia Balboa, president of the vendors’ group, said the ordinance was “oppressive and discriminatory” because the new site was “in the interior, unsafe and prone to flood.”

Apalit Mayor Peter Nucom said the town needed a new market that offered “parking spaces, delivery areas, clean condition and safe shopping.” —TONETTE OREJAS