City officials recently approved the proposed put up of a kiosk within a portion of Burnham Park for the relocation of vendors in compliance with existing health and safety protocols amounting to P5 million under the local government’s first supplemental annual investment plan for 2021.
Under Resolution No. 212, series of 2021 that was signed by Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong, local legislators stated that the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) will be required to submit all necessary documents pertaining to the implementation of the aforesaid project to the local legislative body for confirmation.
Earlier, the body concurred with the proposed construction of the kiosk within a portion of Burnham Park to serve as the relocation of vendors displaced by the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with the city contributing P5 million as its counterpart to the labor department’s contribution of the same amount.
Earlier, the City Development Council (CDC) passed Resolution No. 2021-01, series of 2021, adopting the local government’s first supplemental annual investment plan for 2021 in the total amount of P200 million that includes the P5 million previously earmarked for the construction of a kiosk in the park to serve as the relocation site of displaced vendors in the city’s premier park.
The local government acquire a P5 million funding assistance from the labor department purposely for displaced vendors in the city’s parks while the city will provide a P5 million counterpart for the put up of this modern kiosk.
The proposed kiosk will ensure the compliance of the dozens of displaced park vendors to the prevailing health and safety protocols as mandated by the national and local inter-agency task forces on the management of emerging infectious diseases to contain the further spread of the deadly virus in the city.
Further, the put up of the kiosk will ensure the readiness of the vendors to the existing new normal conditions once the prevailing community quarantine guidelines will be eased up.
The put up of the kiosk and the implementation of the new rules and regulations governing the presence of park vendors is part of the overall plan of the city to limit the operation of the vendors in the park.
The CEPMO inventoried the actual number of roving vendors who had even doing business in the park who will be the priority in the use of the proposed kiosk.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis