BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan urged all wholesalers of products in the city public market to comply with promulgated rules and regulations to prevent the immediate confiscation of their products by the alert personnel of the Public Order and Safety Division (POSD).
During Wednesday’s dialogue between POSD personnel and groups of wholesalers in the public market, the local chief executive underscored that what had been agreed upon is for them to unload their products in the identified areas in the public market on or before 5 am and that they are allowed to take their products to their stalls until 7 am.
He added products that will be left unattended in the designated areas after 7 am will be confiscated by the POSD personnel and will no longer be returned to the wholesalers because their violation will be qualified as obstruction.
Under existing guidelines, rules and regulations which were crafted by the local legislative body, products that are left unattended along roads and sidewalks will be classified as obstruction and that the same will no longer be returned to the owners while violations of illegal peddling will allow the vendors to claim their products after paying the fine of P1, 000.
If there will be wholesalers that will arrive later than the prescribed time, he said the said traders will only be allowed to unload their products in certain areas within the public market as it is not the fault of the city government that they arrived late.
He said that if the wholesalers want their violations of obstruction to be treated as illegal peddling, then they must appeal to the City Council to amend the ordinance that provided for such definition so they can claim back their products once they pay fines.
He reminded all the wholesalers and retailers in the city public market to strictly adhere to the prescribed guidelines and rules governing the operation of the market facility to prevent them from being frequently apprehended for violations that often lead to misunderstanding between them and the POSD personnel who are simply discharging their duties and responsibilities to instill order in the public market.
If the local government was able to rid the sidewalks and major roads of the city from the proliferation of ambulant vendors through the consistent implementation of the city’s anti-peddling policy, Domogan claimed the local government can also instill discipline among the wholesalers and retailers to help promote the city’s public market as a show window for marketgoers even if it is not yet fully developed as a modern market facility worthy of being visited by foreign and domestic visitors.
He reminded the POSD personnel to be consistent in the implementation of rules and regulations to avoid suspicion from the market vendors that they are favoring some groups of vendors in making sure that there will always be law and order inside the facility round-the-clock as the local government has achieved part of its plan in clearing the market from ambulant vendors to allow legitimate vendors to earn.
By Dexter A. See