BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio city Market Authority (BCMA) approved the proposed extension of the night market area to include the parking spaces along Perfecto St. to accommodate the hundreds of walk in vendors nightly.
The decision was reached by the BCMA to accommodate the huge number of walk in vendors wanting to try their luck to vend their goods in the night market area along Harrison road nightly, provided that, the goods to be sold by the vendors to be accommodate are purely dry goods to guarantee cleanliness and orderliness in the night market areas.
Initially, there are supposed to be 160 vendors that will be accommodated in the extension area of the night market as per the initial inspection conducted by the City Engineering Office.
However, Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr., chairman of the City Council Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture, and a member of the BCMA, requested the re-measurement of the extension area so that the spaces will have the uniform measurement to the spaces occupied by night market vendors along Harrison Road which will result to a significant increase in the number of vendors that will be accommodated in the extension area.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the City Engineering Office to make the necessary markings of the available spaces that will be raffled to interested night market vendors and to install the appropriate lighting fixtures along the stretch of Perfecto St. to allow the necessary illumination of the area for the benefit of both the vendors and the public.
Currently, the night market area along the stretch of Harrison road can accommodate some 1,068 vendors nightly wherein 960 are dry good vendors, some 60 are food vendors while some 48 are so-called roving vendors.
Domogan explained the approval of the extension of the night market area to include a portion of Perfecto St. is primarily geared towards the increasing number of night market vendors wanting to sell their goods in the night market area but their chances to sell is actually by chance because of the limited spaces available for occupancy, thus, the BCMA’s decision to allow the extension of the night market area.
Based on data obtained from the City Treasury Office, the night market operation is generating some P1.5 million monthly income for the local government which is derived from the P50 per night paid by the night market vendors which is directly remitted to the coffers of the city.
According to him, the BCMA will announce the availability of the additional slots for interested night market vendors once the City Engineering Office will complete the measurement of the spaces to be leased and the installation of the appropriate lighting fixtures along the extension area.
He admitted that the operation of the night market has provided sustainable sources of income for vendors wanting to legitimately earn from the selling of their goods, additional income for the local government and an added tourist attraction in the city, especially at night. /By Dexter A. See
