If plans do not miscarry, and with the cooperation of the market vendors themselves, the new public market in Dumaguete City will rise in one and a-half years without necessarily spending government money for a two-storey building with provision for underground parking.
Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo disclosed Monday that under the public-private partnership scheme, a private business group will be allowed to a rent portion of the 1.7- hectare lot where the market is currently located.
The potential investor will pay in advance for 30 years so that the proceeds will be used to fund the construction of a two-to-three- storey public market.
The present market has many useless spaces but with a new design, it will have more spaces for new stalls, Remollo stressed.
The Mayor met with hundreds of market vendors during a consultative meeting and public hearing last Friday to thresh out “half truths being circulated on the radio” that the arrangement will not be advantageous to the current market occupants.
Remollo reiterated to the vendors five options, first of which is that the market will not be privatized, contrary to fears expressed by some “whose minds have been poisoned by irresponsible media reports”, he added.
The City Chief Executive clarified that the collection of increased cost of rentals to fund the construction of the market is not an option.
During the consultative meeting, the market vendors expressed their general sentiment that they are not against the construction of a new market. They said their only worry is the loss of income, especially that most, if not all of them, are indebted to the so-called 5-6 business.
Remollo stressed their apprehensions are unfounded, saying they will maintain their incomes and regular customers as a second option is for the City to provide them with temporary stalls with no monthly rentals, while construction of the market is going on for the next 18 months.
A third option is for the local government to construct another market outside the City proper.
Remollo said he will not force the issue in explaining they will be eaten by the competition if the present market will not be modernized, or if they will not improve their services to make their products more presentable, of if the issue of sanitation is not addressed.
