The members of the Market Committee of the Bacolod City government will hold a meeting today at City Hall to discuss the plight of the vendors at the Vendors' Plaza in Bacolod City.

Thirty-two of the vendors, who claim to be actual occupants of the Vendors' Plaza at the Reclamation Area, had asked the city to hold in abeyance the implementation of the notice issued by the Office of the City Administrator Thursday, declaring all stalls, blocks or tables abandoned and automatically revoking lease to such.

Bacolod City Administrator Lorendo Dilag, chairman of the Market Committee, yesterday said that the vendors have no awards and that while some have contracts of lease, these have not been ratified by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod. "In a legal sense, the vendors are not awardees and their occupancy was only through the tolerance of the city," he said.

Dilag said the stalls at the Vendors' Plaza will be subject to raffle and his committee is now preparing the criteria for the applicants, which may be released within two weeks. He said the city wants the Vendors' Plaza occupied by qualified awardees.

Acting Mayor Renecito Novero met yesterday with the occupants of the Vendors' Plaza. He said that during his visit to the market he discovered that there were stalls that were not abandoned and the vendors continued to pay "arkabala" or fees to the city.

Novero said he will submit his recommendation to the Market Committee because he believes that an order should not be implemented without a deliberation on the problem. "We need to understand the order issued by Administrator Dilag because it has its good purpose but we have to synchronize our plans and programs at the Vendors' Plaza," he said.

Novero said "the Vendors' Plaza is a commodious market venue and we should encourage our market vendors to inhabit the place so it will become a site for additional business activity in Bacolod City."

Vendors' Plaza occupant Erlinda Pabiona said that she, together with several other vendors have not abandoned their stalls at the Vendors Plaza.' She said there are others who have abandoned their stalls after incurring losses because business is not good, but they return from time to time.

Pabiona said perhaps the city wants to straighten up things at the Vendors' Plaza because there are some people who sleep there and take a bath or wash their clothes. She said they will continue to sell at the Vendors' Plaza while waiting for a resolution of the problem.*CGS

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