Illegal Jaro plaza vendors: Are you talking to us?

“Uncertainty is a very good thing: it's the beginning of an investigation, and the investigation should never end.”  Tim Crouch

By Alex P. Vidal

THE task of clearing the sidewalks of Jaro district plaza of illegal or ambulant vendors falls on the office of Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, not with the city council.

Instead of bellyaching, city councilors should leave the matter to the city mayor’s office.

The city mayor’s office implements ordinances. 

The city council enacts them.

The city council can’t usurp the powers of the executive office, vice versa.

Councilor Joshua Alim said they will investigate reports that illegal vendors were allowed to erect stalls on the sidewalks of the plaza during the Jaro Agro-Industrial Fair after paying certain fees, which, he said, was illegal.

Only registered stalls inside the plaza were allowed and authorized to pay rental fees, etcetera.

The city councilors, receiving complaints from legitimate stall owners inside the plaza, wanted to know who's behind the racket.

Three council committees will spearhead the investigation after the February 2 district feast of Jaro's Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, Alim said.

COMMITTEES

These committees are: tourism, culture and historical affairs headed by Councilor Nielex Tupas; good governance headed by Councilor Jason Gonzales; and barangay affairs and community development headed by Councilor Carlos Guarin.

What for?

Any step made by city hall authorities after the event would be moot and academic.

The “crime” has been consummated.

Illegal vendors won’t give a damn about any council investigation to be held after they have served their purposes.

They can even snub it.

When city hall first heard that illegal vendors were being allowed on the sidewalks of Jaro plaza in exchange of unauthorized fees in January, Mabilog should have ordered a team to drive them away.

The demolition should have commenced before the Jaro fiesta or the start of the agro-industrial fair.

If stalls of ambulant vendors are demolished by city hall only after the fiesta or the holding of the agro-industrial fair, city officials will look stupid.

‘THANK YOU’

Illegal stall owners will loudly tell city hall: “thank you for the free services.”

But the city mayor’s office has been mum over the furor.

It was only the city council that made a lot of noise, threatening to hold a committee investigation to determine who’s at fault.

The vendors were reportedly allowed on the sidewalks after paying P200 to the Special Services Unit of the city government for P200.

They vendors also paid P30 per light bulb to a light contractor. An organization also charged them as much as P4,000 to P5,000 per stall without any receipt.

Based on these tips, city hall should have started clamping down on these illegal vendors and the illegal transactions involving some organizers as early as last month.

The issue here is corruption. 

Somebody made money out of the presence of these eyesores within the belt line of the plaza.

While nobody from the city mayor's office is aggressive enough to identify and punish the scoundrels, some city councilors consider the issue an urgent matter.

Thus they will investigate after the smoke has disappeared.

In Tagalog, they have this popular aphorism: "Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo." (The grass is useless if the horse is dead.)