LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Some 3,000 individuals will be displaced from the old vegetable trading post following the ultimatum given by Mayor Edna C. Tabanda for them to vacate the facility within a 30-day period.
Those who will be displaced from the facility will be traders, disposers, packagers, porters among others as the local government plans to pursue the long overdue rehabilitation of the trading post to serve the needs of cultflower vendors and traders among others.
Mayor Tabanda said the old vegetable trading post will initially serve as a temporary relocation for the market stalls that will be displaced with the upcoming construction of a new market facility by the JARCO Realty and Development Corporation, the winning bidder of the build-operate, lease-transfer (BOLT) scheme.
“We have to pursue the development of the old trading post because the agriculture department already downloaded the first tranche of the funds needed to improve it. We hope the people who will be displaced will understand our position because they will be transferred to a better facility plus the fact that we have to attend to the needs of our market vendors who will also be displaced from the area where the new market building will be built,” Domogan stressed.
The local chief executive added the matter was already explained to the people who will be displaced from the old trading post that is why we already issued the appropriate notices to them for them to prepare for the eventual closure of the old trading post and its subsequent rehabilitation.
She added the decision to already issue the notices to the occupants of the old vegetable trading post was agreed upon during a recent meeting of the local market committee where there was a quorum.
According to her, the development of the old vegetable trading post has been long overdue that is why it must be implemented so that it will serve as a cutflower center and a facility to champion other major crops from the locality such as strawberries among others.
Tabanda asserted the need to pursue further development projects in the old vegetable trading post and in its market building so that it will be at par with other market buildings in the different parts of northern Luzon.
Moreover, she claimed the new facilities will also be used in order to improve the micro, small and medium enterprises in the municipality in order to significantly improve the sources of livelihood of local residents and the economic resiliency of the municipality so that it will be able to improve its standing in the assessment of national competitiveness.
The municipal mayor cited the improvement of the old trading post is for the upliftment of the cutflower industry and other champion crops while the put up of the multi-million Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center has been premised for the benefit of the local vegetable industry that is why those who will be displaced from the facility could be accommodated in the new vegetable trading center within the strawberry fields.
By Dexter A. See
