BAGUIO CITY – The Public Order and Safety Division of the City Mayor’s Office continues to intensify its anti-peddling campaign not only in the city public market but also in major streets and parks to significantly reduce the number of ambulant vendors that constrict the smooth flow of pedestrian traffic along sidewalks.
POSD chief Policarpio C. Cambod said their anti-peddling campaign aims to restore the cleanliness and orderliness in the different crowded portions of the market and the sidewalks within the central business district and the barangays and parks.
“We have to be consistent with our anti-peddling campaign to send a clear message to our ambulant vendors that we mean business in our to bring back the streets to the pedestrians and motorists,” Cambod stressed.
He added the intensified anti-peddling campaign is an offshoot of the recommendations of the Baguio-Boracay Re-development Task Force that found out in earlier inspections during the previous administration that ambulant vendors impeded the smooth flow of pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the city.
According to him, the anti-peddling campaign is also an effort to address the plight of legitimate market stallholders on the need for the local government to rid the sidewalks of ambulant vendors as they pay taxes to the city while those sidewalk vendors do not.
Cambod appealed to stakeholders in the public market and the ambulant vendors to respect the stringent rules and regulations being currently implemented to maintain the cleanliness and orderliness in the market.
He also called on legitimate stallholders and businessmen to stop using ambulant vendors to sell their goods in the various streets to gain an advantage over their fellow stallholders legally doing their daily trade.
While the existing number of enforcers is not enough to guard the various sections of the market and the sidewalks in the central business district area from ambulant vendors, the POSD chief said that instructions were already given to them to observe maximum tolerance in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities to prevent them from potential complaints of abuse of authority.
He expressed his gratitude to the ambulant vendors for their full cooperation to the city’s anti-peddling policy despite the presence of hard-headed individuals who continue to take the risk of vending around the city’s streets.
Cambod said enforcers understand the need for ambulant vendors to do their trade but the vendors should also understand that there are existing rules and regulations that are to be followed to sustain the gains from the city government’s efforts to bring back order and cleanliness in the city’s show window./By Dexter A. See
