• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Tenants and vendors of the Silay City public market in Negros Occidental are calling on Mayor Joedith Gallego to postpone their transfer to a relocation site, amid the start of “Ber months,” which is a very important time for them to recover from losses due to natural calamities, among other causes, in the past several months.
In an open letter, public market vendors and other stakeholders, as well members of Silay Bantay Bayan said they were saddened by the decision of Mayor Gallego to transfer them to a relocation site next month, to pave the way for the repair and renovation of the market.
A budget of P300 million has been earmarked by the Gallego administration for the public market repair and renovation.
They stressed that they are not opposing the proposed project, however, they claimed it was not explained to them thoroughly during two open forums held on April 23 and August 16 this year, which was attended by Mayor Gallego and Atty. Janus Jarder.
They added that there were no clear answers to many questions that had been raised during the forum.
Before its implementation, there should have been early consultations and formulation of its preparatory phase, the open letter, which had affixed signatures of some people, including Reynaldo ‘Rey Boy’ Labayen, the group coordinator of Bantay Silaynon.
They further said that Gallego wants to start the project immediately, as loan interest payments have already started.
The administration of Gallego has secured a P1.4 billion loan from the Land Bank for the construction of a city college, sports complex, and new City Hall, aside from the renovation and repair of the Silay City public market.
He earlier justified the securing of P1.4 billion loans to finance major infrastructure projects, stressing also that Silay City is far behind in terms of development, compared to other local government units.*
