WAY FORWARD. Calamba City Administrator Johnny Pamuspusan (2nd from right, seated) mediates the dialogue between City Councilor Moises Morales (rightmost), owner of the Calamba Trade Center, and complainant fish vendors on June 24, 2024. The vendors fear losing their livelihoods once the market closes down to make way for a government railway project. (Photo by Zen Trinidad)
CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – Fish vendors here who will be displaced once the privately owned market where they rent store space is shut down to make way for a massive railway project, have accepted mediation brokered by the city mayor’s office.
The initial mediation between the owner of the Calamba Trade Center and the soon-to-be-displaced vendors took place on Monday, City Administrator Johnny Pamuspusan said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Pamuspusan said the vendors were given several options by Mayor Rosseler Rizal: to transfer to the city government-owned Mercado de Calamba with initial fees waived; to transfer to the new Morales Trade Center; or to stay in the old Calamba Trade Center until it is shut down in December.
He said the Calamba Trade Center property, owned by City Councilor Moises Morales, is being expropriated in favor of the government’s North-South Commuter Railway project that would connect Clark, Pampanga to this city.
Pamuspusan said the railway project has been in the works for the past two years, and the city government has considered possible options for vendors who would be inevitably displaced.
He noted that the mediation by the mayor’s office was hastened by complaints filed by the vendors, who fear loss of livelihood, with the office of Senator Raffy Tulfo.
It was also disclosed that some vendors complained about paying rent to a certain collector for the retail establishment without being issued receipts.
“We are willing and ready to listen to the people’s pleas. They can be assured of the assistance of this administration of Mayor Rizal,” Pamuspusan said.
It can be recalled that on Sept. 6, 2023, Mayor Rizal and Department of Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Cesar Chavez signed a memorandum of agreement to create a Resettlement Action Plan Implementation and Management Committee to oversee the relocation of those who will be displaced by the project.
The deal will allow the government's envisioned railway and road projects to push forward. (PNA)
