BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan issued a stern warning to all night market vendors along Harrison Road to appropriately dispose their garbage in order to prevent an eye sore during the early mornings so as not to force the city government to eventually cancel the conduct of the nightly activity that has become a major drawer of visitors to the Summer Capital.
City officials and concerned citizens called the attention of the local chief executive on the ugly situation along Harrison Road, especially during the wee hours of the morning, where piles of garbage are scattered along the roadline.
“One of the conditions for the continuous operation of the night market is for the vendors to make sure that they will maintain the cleanliness of the area during and after the might market operation,” Domogan stressed.
City Treasurer Alicia L. Onoza confirmed the existence of scattered garbage during the wee hours of the morning in the night market area but said that the vendors have been time and again reminded of their obligation to maintain cleanliness in their areas of operation.
However, she claimed that the vendors are complying with the condition of maintaining cleanliness in their working area but after they have left their fixed garbage in place along the road, scavengers reportedly takeover in order to retrieve what will be salvageable up to the extent of scattering the waste.
Onoza cited personnel of the city treasury office and the public order and safety division will again try to remind the vendors to maintain cleanliness within the night market area and to find ways and means on how to prevent scavengers from scattering the garbage while awaiting for the city’s garbage truck to collect the piles of garbage along the road.
More or less 1,000 vendors are actively participating in the nightly conduct of the night market along the 500-meter stretch of Harrison road in order for them to sustain earning income to sustain the living condition of their families.
The city government allowed the conduct of the night market along Harrison as one of the solutions to address the proliferation of ambulant vendors along sidewalks and parks during the day.
Domogan called on the night market vendors to continue maintaining cleanliness in their area of operation and not for them to challenge the leniency of the city government on the matter for their operations to continue considering that it has become a major tourist attraction in the city over the past several years.
He said the local government had always been considerate to the plight of the night market vendors and had given in to most of their concerns, thus, it is high time for them to also do their obligations of maintaining cleanliness so that it will not be taken advantage by the critics of the administration as if they did not do anything to discipline them to comply with existing rules and regulations in the operation of the night market.
By Dexter A. See
