THE Dagupan City government will adopt a new tact to ensure occupancy of the second and third floors of the Malimgas Public Market to make the building, parts of which have long been idle, more useful.

City Administrator Alvin Fernandez has ordered the preparation of the lobbies of the two floors for use of various government offices.

Fernandez said the city government is now negotiating with national government agencies in charge of processing licenses to set up offices in Malimgas to encourage people traffic to the market.

These agencies include the Land Transportation Office, National Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Foreign Affair’s satellite office that will issue passports.

The city administrator himself is thinking of relocating his office, currently at the city, to the market’s lobby at the second floor in order to blaze the trail for other government offices to go there.

A similar plan was considered by the previous administration under then Mayor Benjamin Lim but it was not implemented.

Fernandez said the agencies will be given special rates, much lower than those paid by stallholders of the market’s commercial section.

“What we are after is people traffic at the Malimgas Public Market, not really the rentals of these government agencies,” he explained.

Fernandez said that when people get used to going to the Malimgas Market, more businessmen will open their stalls there, thus the market will really bloom and begin to earn.

The market, built three years ago, has yet to be profitable nor self-sufficient. The city government is still subsidizing its operation, including the payment of quarterly amortization to the P280 million loan obtained by the city for its construction.—LM

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