Bolanteros are back at ‘Super’ – but only at night

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

ILOILO CITY — Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu on Monday, Aug. 24, touted a “win-win” solution that would allow ambulant produce sellers, or bolanteros, to sell their goods without compromising the livelihood of regular public market vendors.

The bolanteros will sell in a designated area inside the Iloilo Terminal Market, commonly known as “Super,” daily from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m.

The venue was chosen with the rainy season in mind.

The schedule was set to ensure no overlap with regular vendors’ operations.

The ambulant vendors also have the option to leave their goods on site instead of hauling them out at the end of their schedule, for a minimum fee.

In a video message, the mayor said the arrangement was based on concerns raised by both ambulant and regular vendors, weighing the regular vendors’ income against the bolanteros‘ contributions to the local economy.

“Firstly, we want to protect our vendors from the city, who have been selling in our public markets for decades, and second, we also want to listen to the bolanteros from the other towns, but we take note of their help to our vendors here,” Treñas-Chu said.

The city government recently ended its “Market Days” scheme, which accommodated bolanteros in the vicinity of the city’s public markets, after complaints of dwindling income from regular vendors inside the markets.

Market Days rotated overnight selling across six public markets — Central, Terminal, Jaro Big Market, Mandurriao, La Paz, and Arevalo — on assigned days, with more than 300 registered bolanteros from the city and the province and about 200 stalls allotted at the Terminal Market.

The Federation of Iloilo City Public Markets had appealed to the mayor over the scheme, saying shoppers were buying in bulk at the night markets instead of from stallholders inside the markets.

The new schedule and the scrapped scheme were both interventions by the city government to address what would otherwise have been a prohibition against bolanteros.

Before the rehabilitation of the city’s public markets this decade, bolanteros were “temporary but permanent” fixtures, selling goods outside the markets and most notably stationed outside “Super.”

The Iloilo Terminal Market and the Iloilo Central Market reopened in late 2025 after a redevelopment worth about PHP 3 billion under a 25-year lease with SM Prime Holdings Inc. signed in 2022, which raised stall capacity from 911 to 1,160.

The redevelopment displaced hundreds of ambulant vendors, who staged protests at Plaza Libertad and were later covered by a 100-meter no-vending zone around the Terminal Market.