In its continuing development of the Tondo district in Manila, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will inaugurate tomorrow, July 29, the public market it especially built for sidewalk vendors and store owners at the Vitas tenement area.
MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando will lead the inauguration of the “Pamilihan ng Bayani”, along with other agency executives, city government, barangay and National Housing Authority (NHA) officials, as well as leaders of local people’s organizations in Tondo and at Vitas Katuparan at 10 am.
“It is about time that vendors here at Vitas be given a market of their own, where they could do business and sell their wares without dirtying the surroundings and occupying the sidewalk and the roadway,” Fernando said.
Located alongside the rows of Vitas tenement buildings in R-10 road, the Pamilihan ng Bayani has 129 stalls and is provided with the necessary amenities, such electricity and water supply, for the benefit of vendors and market goers.
The mini-market, which the MMDA constructed using its own equipment and personnel, is divided into five sections: meat, fish, dry, cooked food and fruits and vegetables.
Fernando ordered the construction of the Vitas market last March after observing that the residents have appropriated the sidewalks and built various makeshift stalls and other illegal structures, which were not only eyesores but also the cause of traffic in the area.
Never wanting to deprive the poor residents of their livelihood, Fernando, after a series of dialogues with the residents and barangay officials, ordered that the place be thoroughly cleaned up, and that a market be put up in a nearby vacant lot where the vendors could be relocated.
Fernando also had the walkway leading to the market be improved, and that the place be provided with water and power supply.
“Rather than clogging the sidewalks, Vitas vendors now have a safe, clean, and organized place where they could freely do business while at the same time, we have improved traffic in the area and provided the residents equally cleaner and safer surroundings,” the MMDA chairman said.
Only last May, the MMDA installed streetlights along Moriones Street and Road 10 as part of its rehabilitation and facelift of the Tondo area.
Under the Tondo rehabilitation program is the “Tondominium” project of the MMDA to clean up, spruce, and rehabilitate the 27 tenement buildings in Vitas, the oldest government-owned tenement houses in the country.
Alongside this is the “Pook na Bulok, Negosyo at Kaibigan ‘Di Papasok” program of the MMDA, a series of road repair and infrastructure projects aimed at making Tondo a business-friendly and investor-attractive region.
This includes widening and major repair of R-10 and the clearing of side streets and peripheral roads such as Delpan, Dapitan, and Abucay, among others.
The MMDA has also recently opened its newest pumping station in Abucay, Tondo, to reduce the flooding in Manila ’s Sampaloc and Sta. Cruz districts.
MMDA
Follow us on: