Osmeña halts night market proposal

CEBU, Philippines — While he is pushing for the night market, Cebu City Councilor Renato Osmeña Jr. has clarified he is not rushing for it especially now that the city is continuously battling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Osmeña stood firm on his proposal to give vendors the chance and dignity on what they would like to sell in the night market and for tourism.

“But, I never said I would like the night market to happen tomorrow, next month, next year. No, I never said that because the only one who can decide to have and open a night market is our Mayor Edgardo Labella,” said Osmeña, the chairman of the committee on markets.

Osmeña emphasized that the city government’s priority is the health and safety of the residents and the night market might be reopened once the pandemic is over and a new normal will be adopted.

“Because we would like to have our safety protocols intact, people need to survive but we would not add up something again to gather a crowd and make it a nightmare sa atong mga frontliners. We will not do that,” said Osmeña.

He stressed they will “not create chaos during the pandemic.”

The councilor appealed to the vendors to remain patient as the city government, through the Market Operations Division, is continuously looking for a win-win solution, in order not to sacrifice the people’s health for progress.

“Nag-suffer sila, but we cannot take advantage of that suffering nila. We have to analyze everything. All of us are suffering, not only them. We just have to be sure on our protocols, our safety, because this is not an ordinary time,” said Osmeña.

“That’s why we are looking for options and hopefully that our vaccines would come out soon... So, as soon as manormalize na tanan, it will be a new norm, or whatever norm that will be, it will be new, something new that we could start with,” he added. — GMR (FREEMAN)