By Minka Klaudia Tiangco Nineteen vegetable vendors were arrested in Quezon City on Saturday for “illegal street vending” amid the enhanced community quarantine due to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) crisis. According to a police report, the vendors were nabbed after they were caught illegally selling goods along Elliptical corner Maharlika Street at Barangay Old Capitol Site in Quezon City at about 5:15 p.m. Police said the vendors, who are now detained at the Anonas Police Station, will be facing charges for violation of City Ordinance 1364 series of 2003 or illegal street vending and Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act. Flora Santos-Assidao, leader of the progressive group Sanlakas, said the vendors were only forced to go out and sell goods for fear of going hungry as the National Task Force COVID-19 mulls a 15 to 20-day extension of the enhanced community quarantine. She also claimed that many of those arrested have yet to receive relief goods or financial assistance from the local government. “Unless this government finds a speedy way of delivering its promise of support to the people, the struggling poor will continue to find ways to survive on their own,” Santos-Assidao said in a statement. The progressive group leader appealed to the Quezon City Police District for the release of those arrested, and asked them to “extend compassion” for those “in the fringes of society."