By Leonardo Micua

 

FINALLY, Mayor Brian Lim closed the baratillo along Galvan Street that sealed the only entry way to CSI Market Square owned by the family of his political rival Belen Fernandez for months. If I’m not mistaken, it’s been there since early November and it had become an eyesore in the downtown area. And with its crammed situation, it was already highly suspected to be harboring the deadly Covid virus.

Owners of shops renting inside CSI Market Square finally heaved a sigh of relief when they saw the baratillo being given a final boot by city hall. For months, the shop owners were helpless during the holidays not being able to sell like they used to all because their trucks delivering fresh stocks could not get through Galvan Street. Lim’s baratillo was obviously set up to block the shop owners’ lone entry point.

Many shop owners felt the City Hall deliberately closed Galvan Street to vehicles entering CSI Market Square to prevent stores owned by the Fernandezes in the building from earning during the holiday. It was an unfair competition launched by the Lims who own the Magic store that was only a few meters away.

But the Lims’ tactics failed. CSI Market Square still enjoyed more patronage from customers than those that shopped in Magic during the Yuletide season.

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Now that the baratillos are gone, we can say that  Galvan Street has been finally liberated.  But this may just be a temporary liberation because summer will soon set in and it is the time when the city usually holds its Bangus Festival, and no doubt, the baratillo will be back in April or as early as March notwithstanding the campaign period before the election. 

It is likely to happen because reports have it that the funds generated by baratillo can rake in an expected P50,000 windfall per exhibitor, and these revenues did not end up at the city coffer but in bank accounts of corrupt city officials and their close friends.

In fact, it’d be interesting to know how much the baratillo really earned for the city. Since the just concluded baratillo was put up as a feature of the Dagupan fiesta, a public accounting of the activity is in order. Dagupeños must know how much it earned for the city during its entire duration. If the revenue turns out to be measly because much of it was pocketed by corrupt occupants at the city hall, then the baratillo should no longer be held.

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But for city hall to complete its clean-up of the downtown area, it should also remove the make-shift stalls installed on a cramped space adjacent the parking area of CSI Market Square that have since became eyesores.

These makeshift stalls were positioned there by the Lim administration since the start of its term  allegedly in an obvious move to beat the competition posed by the Fernandezes,

The city government insists it can do whatever it wants with the space because the city owns it.

Just a brief throwback, during the term of then Mayor Al Fernandez, the city never made use of this space. When Benjie Lim became mayor, ornamental plants were positioned  in this space. During Belen’s term, that space was improved and managed by CSI for public use.

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