Manila Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna said the Divisoria Public Market was sold as it is not beneficial to the city anymore.
In Manila Bulletin’s Hot Seat forum on Thursday, March 31, Lacuna clarified that the Divisoria Public Market has long not been managed by the city government since 1992.
“Ang pag-aari natin dun ’yung lupa na kinatitirikan ng Divisoria Public Market. Matagal na pong hindi tayo ang namamahala sa lupa na yon, way back 1992 pa po (We own the land occupied by the Divisoria Public Market. We haven't managed that land for a long time, way back in 1992),” she said.
She said the city’s former Mayor, Mel Lopez, entered into an agreement with private company Linkworld Corporation, handing over to the firm the management of the land along with the Divisoria Public Market.
“Pina-lease po ‘yung lupa ng former mayor sa Linkworld sa halagang 20 pesos per square meter. Ilan po bang square meters ‘yun? (The former mayor leased the land to Linkworld at a cost of 20 pesos per square meter. How many square meters is that?) Roughly around 8,000 plus square meters,” she explained.
From 1992 until the end of the lease contract, the City of Manila received only P57 million in 25 years, she said.
In 2013, Lacuna said former Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada renewed the contract again.
"The sad part of it, pagdating ng 2013, ni-renew pa ‘yung contract ng former mayor Estrada. In other words, per metro quadrado, 20 pesos pa rin lang po ang kinikita ng Lungsod ng Maynila (by 2013, the contract was renewed by former mayor Estrada. In other words, at per square meter, the City of Manila still earns only 20 pesos)," Lacuna said.
“Sa isang buwan 160,000 pesos lang ang pumapasok sa atin. Sa isang taon po two million lang. Luging-lugi na po tayo (In a month, only 160,000 pesos come to us. In a year, only two million. We are already at a loss),” she pointed out.
The sale of Divisoria Public Market came about after the Assets Management Committee of Manila was tasked to look for assets in the city that are under utilized and not beneficial anymore.
“Nang dumating ang pandemya, inatasan po ng assets management committee ng ating lungsod na humanap po ng mga assets ng ating lungsod na underutilized, hindi po nakakatulong sa 'tin, nalulugi na tayo. Isa po sa nakita nila ay itong Divisoria Public Market. (When the pandemic happened, our city's assets management committee was tasked to look for our city's assets that were under utilized or those that no longer helping us, we were already losing money. One of the things they saw was the Divisoria Public Market),” she explained.
Lacuna, meanwhile, maintained that the sale of Divisoria Public Market was done through the right process.
"Nagdaan po ba sa tamang proseso? Opo. Nagkaron po ng public bidding. Tatlo po ang nag-bid at may nanalo sa halagang P1. 4 billion. Nalugi po ba ang Maynila? hindi po (Did it go through the right process? Yes. There was a public bidding. Three had bid and one won in the amount of P1.4 billion. Did Manila go bankrupt? No),” she said.