LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government announced the end of the experimental period for its own version of the night market but stated that such nightly activity in the municipality will resume after the conduct of the annual Strawberry Festival.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda said that the local finance committee will review the results of the experimental period so that whatever adjustments that will be made will be implemented once the full blast conduct of the night market will resume after the completion of all the festivities in the municipality in the coming months.
He claimed that there were suggestions, recommendations `and observations that were raised during the experimental period of the night market for over two months that is why it will now be up to the members of the local finance committee to study and come out with the amended guidelines before the full blast operation of the nightly activity in the municipality.
“We will make the appropriate adjustments based on the evaluation and assessment that will be done by the members of the local finance committee so that our night market operation will be much better and bigger compared to when it was done on an experimental period,” Mayor Salda stressed.
Earlier, the municipal government approved an ordinance that institutionalized the conduct of the night market within the parking along Km. 5 from 7:30 PM to 2:00 AM daily to provide residents and visitors with a must see site in the municipality at night.
The local chief executive claimed that even if the local government imposed the policy that only bonafide residents will be allowed to have slots in the night market area, majority of the over 100 slots for the interested night market vendors were filled up and that there were numerous positive feedbacks in the conduct of the same that is why appropriate adjustments will be made to improve the same in preparation for its upcoming full blast operation after the conduct of the Strawberry festival.
According to him, all the issues and concerns that were raised during the experimental period of the night market will be thoroughly studied and assessed by the members of the local finance committee so that the appropriate solutions will be formulated and implemented to entice more residents to avail of the stalls that will be made available for the full blast operation of the night market.
He admitted that there were numerous non-residents of the municipality who submitted their applications to be able to be granted stalls during the experimental period of the night market but the committee stood firm on the provisions of the night market ordinance stating among others that it will only be bonafide residents who will be granted stalls for them to be able to vend their products.
Salda asserted that it is high time that there will be a nightly activity that will be conducted in the municipality year round so that the municipality will be able to draw the interest of visitors to visit the town at night and purchase their desired goods from the participating vendors who want to ern an additional living to help uplift the living condition of their families.
La Trinidad is the recipient of the overflow of visitors in nearby Baguio City because of the presence of the strawberry and flower farms which are serving as attractions in the locality.
By Hent
