Soft loan up for 1,000 vendors in Cotabato market fire

COTABATO CITY -The City Government is finalizing financial assistance scheme for small traders victimized by the huge May 21 city market fire that gutted down some 1,500 business stalls.

“We are yet studying and weighing all possible options (on the loan package),” City Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi said in an interview here Friday.

Guiani-Sayadi clarified that the financial aid will only be available to legitimate market stall owners prior to the fire incident.

“We have a master list of market occupants and we will focus our financial assistance plan on that,” she said, adding the small loans would depend on the nature of business of the affected vendors.

Sam Mundas, city market administrator, said that based on their master list, they discovered that of the 1,500 stall owners, only about 1,000 have permits.

Most ambulant vendors, he said, are not registered with the city market administration.

Mundas said vendors are currently not allowed to return to their previously occupied areas inside the burnt structure as it might collapse anytime.

“The damaged beams and trusses of the building are no longer stable, so we do not allow entry of any vendor inside the perimeter,” he said.

Instead, the vendors were permitted to sell their products in makeshift stalls set up along the sidewalks of Martinez St. and Almonte St. Ext., a few meters away from the market, as a temporary business site for their fish, meat and vegetable products.

“Ukay-ukay” (secondhand clothing) vendors were allowed to put up temporary stalls at the premises of the city wharf along Rajah Tabunaway Blvd.

Fire investigators are expected to make public on May 28 their official findings on the cause of the fire. (PNA)