METRO Manila Development Authority officer-in-charge Thomas Orbos urged local government units to consider putting up night markets to provide sidewalk vendors a venue for their businesses during the holiday season.
Orbos came up with the idea as the agency resumed its campaign clearing sidewalks and major roads of illegal vendors and other obstruction which contribute to the worsening traffic condition in Metro Manila, especially with the onset of the Christmas season.
“During Christmas season, we have plenty of shoppers and merchants but definitely we need to clear the roads for the majority. So, our focus is to clear the sidewalks. We don’t want them to miss that livelihood opportunity but they need to be regulated,” he said.
The MMDA, according to Orbos, will assist Metro Manila mayors in setting up night markets and provide proper places for merchants to keep them off the sidewalks.
The agency is considering the areas of Balintawak and Cubao, both in Quezon City, and Rotunda and Baclaran in Pasay City as among the places where they can put up the night markets.
“Right now, we are talking to mayors of Pasay and Paranaque and church officials, as well,” said Orbos.
In Makati City, Mayor Abigal Binay recently ordered her men to clear streets of illegal vendors and illegally parked vehicles to ease traffic in the city.
Personnel from the city’s Department of Environmental Services-Solid Waste Management Division were able to clear a total of 78 streets through the conduct of sidewalk recovery operations in different barangays in the city.
Binay also called on community leaders to support and cooperate with the team tasked to get rid of all kinds of obstruction. She reminded them of their duty to ensure that cleared sidewalks and streets are regularly maintained.
“As government officials, we must all make a conscious effort to promote walkable streets for the safety of our residents and the general public. Sidewalk vendors and street vendors, for instance, should not be allowed to proliferate in our city,” she said.
The mayor noted that pedestrians are unnecessarily endangered when they are forced to walk on the road in areas where sidewalks are blocked or non-existent. She said motorists and the riding public also suffer because pedestrians and vendors impede the flow of traffic.
Last year, former Public Works secretary Rogelio Singson said the local government units and the local police were partly to blame for the traffic mess in the metropolis for not implementing a policy authorizing them to clear public places in Metro Manila of illegal structures and obstructions.
He said the presence of vendors and other obstructions from business establishments along the sidewalks in major thoroughfares caused road congestion.
Resolution No. 02-28, which was approved in 2002 during the term of then MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando, authorizes the MMDA, the National Police and the LGUs to clear the sidewalks, streets, avenues, alleys, bridges, parks and other public places of all illegal structures and obstructions in order to effect the smooth flow of traffic in Metro Manila.
The Metro Manila Council, the MMDA’s policy-making body, came up with the resolution after observing that “public places in Metro Manila are not properly utilized by the road users due to malpractices of some unscrupulous individuals who wantonly utilize these areas for displaying and vending their goods as well as utilizing the same in erecting some structures for commercial and advertising purposes.”
The resolution stated that “such use of sidewalk applies even to cases involving the use or lease of public places under permits or licenses issued by competent authority upon the theory that such holders could not take advantage of their unlawful permits and licenses and claim that the land in question is a part of a public street or a public place devoted to public use hence beyond the commerce of man.”
