BAGUIO CITY – A ruse involving the illegal renting out of stalls at the city public market perpetrated by unscrupulous individuals who prey on hapless vendors has been uncovered by the city government.
Mayor Mauricio recently formed a three-man fact-finding team to dig up information on the scam and establish the identities of the bilkers.
The mayor said the team will be composed of City Administrator Carlos Canilao , city legal officer Melchor Carlos Rabanes and market superintendent Paul Tamayo.
The mayor said the findings will serve as basis of the Baguio City Market Authority (BCMA) in taking legal action against the perpetrators.
To stop the illegal activity at once, the mayor said he recalled the authorization earlier given allowing the use of certain portions of the city market for vending.
Concerned vendors reported that some private individual posing as administrators of said vending areas collect payments from the vendors on a regular basis purportedly as rental for the use of the spaces.
The mayor said they some vendors were being bilked rental payments amounting to as much as P10,000 monthly.
He said the city’s approved rental fee for said areas amounts to only P600.
“Imagine how much these unscrupulous persons earn out of hoodwinking innocent vendors and out of using a city government property,” the mayor said.
He said this practice has to stop and the unscrupulous persons behind the stunt must be penalized assuring that the city will continue its campaign to purge the city market of illegal activities.
On the stalls bid out recently by the city government, the mayor assured that the city will uphold its commitment to the winning bidders despite the appeal for reconsideration made by the previous lessees.
“These former lessees have no legal personality to appeal because they were the ones who were remiss in their obligation to the city because they failed to pay for so many years while they continued to earn by using or renting out the stalls ,” the mayor said.
The city cancelled the lease contracts of said stalls as early as 2006 due to unsettled obligations despite repeated demand from the city.
Last March, the city bid out the stalls to new applicants but some of the previous owners refused to vacate the spaces.
The mayor said that if these previous lessees will continue to defy the city’s order, then the city will be forced to evict them to give way to the new lessees. – A Refuerzo
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