BAGUIO CITY – The City Council passed a resolution supporting the establishment of satellite markets in the city’s 128 barangays to help decongest the influx of market goers to the public market in the central business district area, provided that the barangays are able to comply with the guidelines for the put-up of the facilities.
Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr., Chairman of the Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture, said that Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan earlier committed to source out the funds for the initial rehabilitation and upgrading of existing public markets from available sources of funds of the local government while the put up of other satellite markets in other barangays will be a long-term project of the local government that has to be part of the annual investment plans of the concerned barangays and the city in the future.
Initially, the local government plans to rehabilitate and upgrade the satellite markets in Gibraltar and Bayan Park to be able to accommodate more stalls and accommodate the influx of more people while the development of 14 other satellite markets will be prioritized for funding by the local government.
The local legislative body underscored the planned put up of satellite markets must include all 128 barangays in the city. The concerned departments of the local government will determine which barangays will be able to comply with the prescribed guidelines for the put up of the satellite markets in their areas of jurisdiction in the future.
Under the provisions of the Local Government Code, barangays must formulate their annual investment plans that will include all their priority projects which will be the basis of the concerned municipal, city and provincial governments in the formulation of their own plans that will serve as a shopping list for the priority projects that will be funded under their annual budgets for the succeeding years.
Yangot explained the put up of satellite markets in strategic barangays will definitely contribute in reducing the influx of residents and visitors to the public market and lessen the congestions of people and vehicles around the central business district area.
According to him, it will now be up to the barangay officials concerned to work out the identification of suitable areas in their areas of jurisdiction that could serve as the place to build their satellite markets in the future once all the necessary requirements shall have been complied with so that there will be basis for the local government in providing the required funds for the projects in the future.
One of the major requirements for the barangays to comply once barangay officials are interested to have their own satellite market will be the identification of the suitable area suitable for the put up of the needed structures for the eventual operation of the facility in their places.
The proposal to put up satellite markets in the different parts of the city had been a long standing proposal by previous members of the local legislative body that resulted to the construction of some satellite markets in several barangays outside the central business district area that served as part of the city’s initiative to significantly reduce the influx of people from the barangays to the city proper simply to purchase their needed goods and other basic needs.
By Dexter A. See
