- GILBERT BAYORAN
Tenants and vendors of the public market in Silay City are calling on Mayor Joedith Gallego to postpone their transfer to the relocation site, amid the start of the “‘ber months”, which they said is vital to them recovering their losses in the past several months due to natural calamities, among others.
In an open letter, public market vendors and other stakeholders, as well as members of the Silay Bantay Bayan, said they were saddened by the decision of Gallego to transfer them to a relocation site next month to pave the way for the repair and renovation of the market.
A budget of P300 million has been earmarked by the Gallego administration for the public market repair and renovation.
While they are not opposed to the project, the vendors and market tenants claimed that it was not explained to them thoroughly during the two open fora with Gallego and Atty. Janus Jarder on April 23 and Aug. 16 this year.
They added that there was no clear answer to many questions that were raised during the fora.
“Before its implementation, there should have been early consultations and formulation of its preparatory phase,” stated the open letter which contained the signatures of the market tenants, including that of Reynaldo “Rey Boy” Labayen, group coordinator of Bantay Silaynon.
They further said that Gallego wants to start the project immediately since the payment of loan interest has already started.
The administration of Gallego has secured a P1.4 billion loan from the Land Bank for the construction of a city college, sports complex, and a new City Hall, aside from the renovation and repair of the public market.
He earlier justified the P1.4 billion loan to finance major infrastructure projects, stressing that Silay City is far behind in terms of development, compared to other local government units./GB
