Puddles near your stall? Here is what market rules say

ILOILO CITY — The Iloilo City Local Economic Enterprise Office (LEEO) denied reports that it was fining vendors PHP 1,000 outright through citation tickets when water puddles were found around their stalls.

LEEO head Maricel Mabaquiao told Bombo Radyo Iloilo on Saturday, Sept. 26, that vendors must regularly keep their stalls clean, especially since the market buildings are new.

She added that the market’s cleaning staff should not be expected to clean the immediate areas around the stalls, since they already attend to the general areas.

“They should be maintaining their stalls, which for some are already their second home. They cannot rely on sweepers because [the puddles] are already within their stall [area] but the sweepers [tend to] the surrounding areas and the whole market itself,” Mabaquiao said.

“The stalls, like their home, should be their obligation,” she added.

Mabaquiao clarified, however, that vendors who violate market rules, including those on cleanliness, would be called in by the market’s officer-in-charge or the LEEO to be properly notified.

Continued violations may be grounds for the cancellation of their stall lease.

“Once you have been notified, it doesn’t mean that you have to pay outright. You have to go to the office to clarify these violations, and if you continue to not follow the market rules, that would be one of the grounds for us to take the stall from you,” she said.

“If we do not follow that, our market will go back [to being disorganized], and that would be a waste for our new markets,” she added.

The clarification came after the radio station received complaints that vendors were being issued citation tickets requiring them to pay PHP 1,000 immediately.

The complaints surfaced nearly a year after the city reopened the redeveloped Iloilo Terminal Market and Iloilo Central Market in late 2025, following a roughly PHP 3 billion redevelopment by SM Prime Holdings Inc. under a public-private partnership.

The city’s five reopened public markets now hold more than 3,900 stalls, which the LEEO aimed to fill by September.

What the market code says

Iloilo City Regulation Ordinance No. 2009-316, or the Iloilo City Market and Slaughterhouse Code of 2009, requires vendors to keep their assigned stalls clean and sanitary.

Several provisions spell out that duty.

Sections 16 and 18, which outline the contents of the lease application form and the lease contract, respectively, include a provision on keeping the stall “at all times in good conditions, clean and sanitary, [and] provide trash cans.”

Section 39(a) obliges stall lessees to keep their leased premises and their immediate areas “in good, clean and sanitary condition and, except for ordinary wear and tear, return the same in good tenantable condition as originally received.”

Subsection (c) of the same section requires stallholders to provide their own garbage receptacles and to clean their stalls themselves.

Section 104 sets the penalty: either a PHP 1,000 fine or imprisonment of one to six months, at the discretion of the court.