Who Really Owns the Market Parking – And Who Pays For It?

The numbers alone make the problem obvious. The Iloilo Terminal Market drew over 2 million visitors in just four months. The Central Market added another 799,970. Both facilities have roughly 300 parking slots each. You don’t need a traffic engineer to see why finding a space has become its own errand.

So yes, the city’s proposed parking ordinance — two free hours, then fees kick in — makes sense on paper. All-day parkers have essentially been treating a public utility as private storage, and vendors and shoppers have been paying for it in the form of full lots and lost sales. Joelle Iubel Janeo, third-generation owner of Rawit’s Native Lechon Manok at the Central Market, said business has been up since modernization. That momentum stalls fast when customers can’t park.

The regulation is necessary. That part is hard to argue against.

What’s worth scrutinizing is how it gets done — and who benefits from doing it.

Under the proposal, the rooftop parking areas will be managed by the same company that redeveloped both markets under a public-private partnership and currently occupies the lower floors with a supermarket. Revenue from parking fees gets split 50-50 with the city after administrative expenses. So a problem created, in part, by the surge in mall foot traffic gets monetized by the company that built the mall. That’s not necessarily corrupt, but it is a question worth asking out loud: who audits those administrative expenses before the split? The ordinance should spell that out clearly before the Sangguniang Panlungsod passes it.

There’s also the question of whether two hours is actually enough. A typical morning at a public market — wet goods on the ground floor, a stop at the eateries on the third, maybe a quick run through the variety stalls — can stretch past that window without anyone dawdling. If the free period is too short, the ordinance stops being regulation and starts functioning as a revenue mechanism. The city says this isn’t about commercializing parking. The structure they’ve proposed makes that promise harder to keep.

And then there’s a broader pattern to consider. Iloilo already charges parking fees on Arsenal, Solis, Guanco, Ortiz, and Peralta streets downtown. Motorcycles pay PHP 15 for the first two hours; light vehicles pay PHP 25. Individually, those are modest amounts. But for a market vendor or a market worker who shows up six days a week, those fees accumulate. The city has been steadily monetizing access to its own downtown, and people who commute by motorcycle or tricycle — generally not the wealthiest marketgoers — absorb that cost disproportionately.

None of this means the ordinance is wrong. The parking problem is real, the modernization gains are real, and doing nothing isn’t an option. But “regulation, not commercialization” is a claim the city needs to back up with transparent revenue reporting, a meaningful consultation with vendor associations before the measure passes, and a free-period window that reflects how people actually shop — not just how the city hopes they do.

The market belongs to the public. The parking policy should prove it.