ILOILO CITY—To allay fears, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas assured that no single market vendor will be displaced as the city government is embarking on the rehabilitation of all public markets here.
“No legitimate market vendors will be displaced as based to the project’s Terms of Reference (TOR),” emphasized Treñas.
The city mayor and other city officials held a dialogue Tuesday with presidents of public market vendors associations in the districts of Arevalo, City Proper, Jaro, and La Paz.
The city government is again pushing for the rehabilitation of the five public markets here to become competitive.
“Once our markets have improved, this will help our vendors be competitive against supermarkets in malls. Additional stalls may also be expected since the markets will be made spacious for the vendors and consumers,” said Treñas.
Of the five markets that will be redeveloped in the four districts, two will be thru public-private partnerships (PPP).
The Iloilo City government and the PPP Center of the Philippines have called on interested investors to redevelop the Iloilo City Central Market and Iloilo Terminal Market, respectively.
So far, SM Development Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. have expressed interest in these two markets.
There was a similar move during the administration of former Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog here but vendors of the Iloilo City Central Market opposed the redevelopment proposal of SM Development Corp.
The public markets in Arevalo, Jaro, and La Paz will be financed by the city government via a loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).