City Hall backs food terminal to regulate transient vendors

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

The Iloilo City Local Economic Enterprise Office (LEEO) has welcomed the Iloilo provincial government’s proposal to establish a food terminal, saying the project could help the city better regulate and monitor transient vendors, or bolanteros.

LEEO head Maricel Mabaquiao said the proposed facility would provide a single legal selling area for bolanteros while improving oversight of those entering the city from other areas.

“It is a good idea because we will now have only one area where our bolanteros can legally sell. It would be better if this gets implemented because at the same time we can regulate and monitor all the bolanteros that come from other provinces,” she said Monday.

She added that the proposed food terminal would not disrupt the existing supply of goods in the city, noting that bolanteros and regular market vendors have long complemented each other in local trade.

“It will not be affected. They complement each other. From the way I look at it, they are complementing one another. We have already practiced this arrangement; it just so happens that what we lack is a space where they can all sell,” she said.

Mabaquiao said scheduled market days for bolanteros in various public markets would continue even if the food terminal materializes, as these arrangements help vendors access more selling spaces while supplying goods to market stallholders.

She clarified that transient vendors currently pay only arkabala fees and taxes on sacks and goods brought into the city, unlike regular market vendors who also shoulder rent, utilities, and other charges.

The LEEO chief said the city has assigned a monitoring team to oversee bolanteros across public markets in coordination with vendors’ associations.

“We are continuously learning. The feedback from the team is that they are also cooperating, and they ask where they can sell their goods, so we give them a schedule. What they are asking is for us to make the schedule consistent across all markets,” she said.

“We have schedules at 12 noon, like in Arevalo Public Market, and they requested that we could instead schedule it from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m.,” she added.

The current market day schedules are as follows:

• Central Market “Lunesan” – Monday from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday
• Iloilo Terminal Market – Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday
• Jaro Big Market – Wednesday from 12 noon to 12 noon Thursday
• Mandurriao Market – Friday from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday
• La Paz Market – Saturday from 5 a.m. to 12 noon Sunday
• Arevalo Market – Sunday from 12 noon to 7 p.m.

Among the improvements being considered is the provision of elevated selling spaces for vendors to improve sanitation and organization.

For additional bolanteros seeking to sell in the city, Mabaquiao said they will first be listed and assessed based on market capacity, with priority given to those already included in the city’s existing roster.

The proposed food terminal is part of broader efforts by local authorities to streamline informal trading, improve market conditions, and ensure fair competition between transient and registered vendors.