Photo of vendor during clearing op goes viral
A photo of a vendor on Colon St., Cebu City whose goods were scattered on the street went viral on social media after the clearing operation conducted by the Prevention Restoration Order Beautification and Enhancement (Probe) last Thursday.
In a Facebook post, Cheng Sabellaga Gines said that while she understands the need to clear the streets of vendors, members of Probe should have talked to the vendors in a calm manner during the clearing operation.
“I just caught in the act jod on how they talked with the vendors which is keep on nagging pina tulisok2 pa. My point is I think mobayad man jod siguro ang vendors masakitan lang jod siguro sila nga i-impound ilang kariton, kariton raman ang kwaon ana diba? Ang baligya intawn sayang kaayo mahalin paman ta na (I think the vendors are willing to pay, they just don’t to see their carts confiscated),” she captioned her photo.
Because of the need to survive the cost of daily living, Gines said these vendors opted to violate the policy on ambulant vending to earn a little.
Gines accused members of Probe of being abusive.
When sought for comment, Probe Chief Raquel Arce clarified that their operatives were not abusive and were just doing their job.
Arce said that during the incident, the vendors resisted the confiscation of their rolling carts by taking advantage of the lesser number of operatives that time.
“There were 11 vendors and we only had five operatives doing the operation. Each of the operative was holding two rolling cars and the vendors took advantage of it. Instead of surrendering their carts, they pulled them, that’s why their goods were seen scattered on the street,” she said.
The vendors were the ones who were abusive because they have been occupying one lane of the portion of Colon St., which is one of the busiest in the city, Arce said.
Arce said they have been doing their job carefully to avoid abuse but the vendors abuse it./