WITH Davao City still placed under community quarantine, Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio it still uncertain if the Roxas Night Market will resume operations anytime soon.
Duterte-Carpio ordered on March 12, 2020, the closure of the Night Market along Roxas Avenue together with other public parks days after the national government declared a state of public health emergency due to the threat of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
The closure came days before the declaration of the mandatory community quarantine on March 16.
However, the mayor said in a radio interview on Monday, June 22, she hopes the closure will not last until the end of the year.
Duterte-Carpio said she understands that there is a need to resume the night market, which is both a source of income and a tourist attraction.
“Of course, di nato gusto nga next year pa [i-open ang Roxas Night Market] because dili nato gusto padugayon ang delay sa pagbalik sa trabaho and sa negosyo sa tao (we do not want to delay the reopening of the Roxas Night Market next year because it will mean delaying the reopening of businesses and those who will return to work),” Duterte-Carpio said in an interview via 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
The mayor said she hopes the city could “graduate” from the community quarantine and could transition to the “new normal” so that the night market and other commercial establishments could resume their operation.
But she said these establishments should continue to adopt health safety protocols while the Covid-19 vaccine and medicine are still being studied and formulated.
The mayor’s statement came after an article was published in Superbalita Davao, where vendors and stall operators expressed worries after hearing that the reopening of the Roxas Night Market might be delayed to January 2021.
Faizal Mohammad Hadji Ali, 45, ukay-ukay vendor, said they had financially struggled since the night market’s operation was suspended indefinitely.
Ali is worried that the threat of Covid-19 pandemic might last until the end of the year
“Kung ito ang mangyayari na hindi pa talaga mawawala itong Covid-19, malalagay ito na ma-sure na yung narinig namin na istorya na sa January 2021 na mag-open ang night market (if the night market stays closed longer than we expect, then it might reopen next year, which we heard from others),” Ali said.
Another vendor, Marites Gildore, 27, a Barangay 31-D resident, also pleaded for the immediate resumption of the Roxas Night Market.
“Kon sa sunod tuig pa gyod, perteng paita ani, kay kon maninda mi gawas sa amoa, daghan naman sab kaayo naninda, tapos gamay ray mga namalit. Mas maayo gyud tong sa Roxas kay daghan og kustomer. Nagsalig nalang me sa traysikad sa akong bana, kulangon gyud kaayo (it would be hard of us if the night market stays closed for a much longer time. We are already struggling in our current spot. At the night market, we can have more sales. Right now we just rely on my husband’s earning from the tricycle, which is not enough),” Gildore said, who is a barbecue vendor.
Duterte-Carpio said in a previous radio interview that the market’s closure affected over 500 vendors.
Roxas Night Market houses 130 tenants for accessories area, 130 for the ready-to-wears (RTWs), 116 food vendors, and more than a hundred massage therapists in every three-month shift.
Affected vendors were enrolled at the Department of Labor and Employment’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Tupad) program for a month.
Tupad is a community-based package of assistance that provides emergency employment for displaced workers, underemployed, and seasonal workers.
The mayor recently said the city continues to assist them.
She said they are among those being prioritized in the city government’s rationed goods distribution, along with other workers whose companies and establishments are still not allowed to operate under the community quarantine.
Duterte-Carpio also encouraged them to apply for the city’s “cash for work” program, Work For Davao, which needs an estimated 42,000 workers. (With reports from Jeepy P. Compio)