By Alex P. Vidal
THE first-ever protest rally in front of the
municipal hall of Miag-ao, Iloilo on March 9 ended three hours after ambulant fish
vendors, aided by General Assembly Binding Women for Reform Integrity Equality
Leadership and Action (Gabriela)-Panay, agreed to the suggestion of Mayor
Macario Napulan during a dialogue that they “police your own group” and to form
an organization.
The rally started at past one o’clock in the
afternoon spearheaded by Lucy Francisco, Gabriela regional coordinator.
“We came from Antique province and we are here to
help the ambulant vendors (in Miag-ao) because we are celebrating the
International Women’s Month and we don’t want their rights to be violated,”
Francisco said.
Some15 minutes after the rally started, Senior
Inspector Cyril Octavio, Miag-ao police chief, approached Francisco and Ma.
Leonora Egarde, leader of ambulant fish vendors, and invited them to the
municipal hall.
Municipal administrator Joselito Eiman, municipal legal
officer Ramil Naciongayo and Councilor Ma. Teresa Jambre faced them in a dialogue
in the conference hall.
ARREST
Egarde protested the arrest of their three members
and the seizure of their fishes saying the municipal government violated the
verbal agreement they entered with Napulan allowing them to sell inside the
public market from 5:30 in the afternoon up.
Egarde said Napulan issued them a business permit
after paying a fee of P495 on January 20, 2015.
The permit, issued in the name of Rosine Montalvo
and approved by licensing unit chief Stephen Intal, is good until December 31,
2015.
“If we will be arrested and our fishes are
confiscated, we will lose our livelihood and we will go hungry,” Egarde sobbed.
But the municipal officials chided Egarde’s group for
its failure to honor a previous agreement to sell only in designated areas.
Some of Egarde’s fellow ambulant vendors sell their
fishes outside the public market and even before five o’clock in the afternoon
in violation of the municipal ordinance, Naciongayo disclosed.
Jambre said she herself caught several ambulant
vendors selling beyond what was contained in the agreement.
ABUSE
Napulan, who came late in the two-hour dialogue, rapped
the ambulant fish vendors for “abusing the privileges” he extended them.
“They abused our agreement. I myself saw some of
them selling in the gates of the public market as early as six o’clock in the
morning,” the mayor said.
Napulan said he also discovered that some ambulant
vendors allowed themselves to be used in a hocus pocus committed by some registered
or authorized vendors inside the public market.
“Some ambulant vendors are relatives of registered
vendors. Sometimes three vendors are using one permit,” Napulan said.
To resolve the problem, Napulan urged ambulant fish vendors
to form an organization and “police your own group” by doing the following:
-get a certification from the barangay that they are
bonafide residents of Miag-ao; and
-produce identification cards showing that they are
indigents.
Napulan said through regulation they can protect
and prioritize Miag-ao-based ambulant fish vendors as transient
ambulant vendors from other municipalities come in from time to time.
ENCOURAGE
He also encouraged them to sell fishes taken from
the shores of Miag-ao.
“Our own fishermen are at the mercy of wholesale
buyers who sell the fishes taken from the Miag-ao shores to the Iloilo fishing
port (in Iloilo City). The ones that are brought back here are sold to us in a higher
price,” Napulan stressed.
“We are developing the Baybay Norte and Baybay South
and we will give priority to those who catch the fishes here in the shores of
Miaga-ao and sell them direct to the local residents.”
Jambre suggested that ambulant vendors should indicate
if the fishes they are selling are from Miag-ao beach so they can be given priority.
Eiman said there is a need to regulate the ambulant
fish vendors “because we are looking for the revenues.”
Out of 60 registered vendors inside the public
market, only 10 were able to renew their business permits this year, Eiman
said.
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