To cope vendors weave rags from old clothes
“Ti epekto na daytoy pandemya ket krisis. Haan kami nga makalako, awan panggatang mi ti kanen mi. Adda man inted ti gobyerno ket kurang. (The effect of this pandemic is crisis. We cannot sell, we have no source of income to buy food. The government gave assistance but it is not enough),” lamented Teresa, an ambulant vendor in Baguio city for at least three years now.
Urban informal workers such as ambulant vendors are among the sectors most affected by the Covid-19 lockdown. They have been displaced from their work since the lockdown declared on March 16 till the present. Even before the pandemic most of them had already been prohibited to do ambulant and street vending of fruits and vegetables in the city.
Registration of street vending
Mary who has been an ambulant vendor for 17 years said that vendors have to register with the Baguio City Market Authority (BCMA), and securing a permit is a very tedious process. Among the requirements are medical clearance, voters certification, and barangay permit from the barangay they want to rove in; only in that barangay will they be allowed to sell their products. The special permit fee costs P350 which they can renew quarterly, while the barangay permit that is good for one year costs another P350. Ambulant vendors without a permit will be arrested by enforcers of the Public Order and Safety Division (POSD).
In the previous administration, the city required a permit from ambulant vendors in order to monitor their activities and to regulate illegal vendors that former Mayor Mauricio Domogan reportedly said ruins the city’s identity as one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the country.
The City Government however has stopped issuing ambulant vending permits. Jovy who tried to apply for a permit last year said,“Mapan kami nga ag-apply, haan da kami nga releasan, adu kanun. Ngem ti POSD nu tiliwin da kami, siyempre ibaga mi apan kami met nga ag-apply ngem ajay office ket haan dakami met nga releasan” (We applied for a permit but they did not issue us any since they said there were already too many [ambulant vendors]. When POSD enforcers apprehend us, we tell them we tried applying but the office didn’t give us a permit). In her 11 years of ambulant vending, Jovy can no longer count how many times she has been apprehended by POSD.
The non-issuance of permits to new applicants aims to curb the number of ambulant vendors in the city. Councilor Philian Weygan-Allan, who chairs the Committee on Market, Trade, Commerce and Agriculture, in a news report said that the city will only maintain the 750 registered vendors in barangays and Burnham Park. She also said that POSD can use its power to press charges against ambulant vendors violating the conditions of their special permit; sanctions include fines from P1,000-P5,000 and/or imprisonment. Mayor Benjamin Magalong, as quoted by Councilor Weygan-Allan in the news report, explained that no new permits will be issued because increasing the number of vendors will weaken the income of licensed stall owners and other vendors. Her committee has proposed allowing displaced vendors without permits to register with the Department of Trade and Industry or the Department of Labor and Employment to qualify for training and cash loans or assistance, avail of livelihood training through these agencies or the Congressman’s Office, and be provided space to sell their wares which would have been done from their homes.
But despite this non-issuance, Belen, another ambulant vendor selling fruits, said, “Kasanu kami ngay nga mabiyag? Anya ngay ti ipakan mi ti anak mi? Uray ibaga da nga bawal, apan kami nga aglako latta” (How are we going to live? What are we going to feed our children? Even if they prohibit us, we will still go out to sell.)”
Ambulant and street vending of fruits and vegetables is the domain of indigenous migrant women. For instance, Teresa, Mary, Jovy, and Belen are natives of Saclit in the municipality of Sadanga, Mountain Province. Their families left their original settlement to seek better work opportunities in the city because of the lack of livelihood sources in their ili (village/community). They left the ili with no assurance of having a good quality of life in the city.
Disallowed
The lockdown further put a halt to all ambulant vending. In a May 13 advisory, the city government reiterated that ambulant vendors are not allowed during ECQ and GCQ periods. Selling fruits and vegetables along the road is prohibited as a safety measure. Ambulant vendors have had no source of livelihood since the lockdown was imposed. Most of them were given cash assistance under the government’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP), which aims to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic. They also planted vegetables in their backyard as a source of food or made rags from old clothes but there is no assurance they can find buyers.
Some of them used the SAP P5,500 cash assistance they received to pay bills. For Teresa, most of the SAP aid she got in May went to pay for electricity. In June when GCQ was declared, she had to look for work again to augment the family income. “Ti dadduma nga source iti pamilya, ket napanak nakikiporpordia iti adda garden na ken adda dagiti friends ko nga mangibaga nga umay ka agdalus ken aglaba. (For other sources of income for the family, I did por dia (daily wage) work in the farm and I have friends who asked me to clean their house and do the laundry),” she said.
Other vendors looked for other ways to tide them over during the lockdown. Jovy used her small savings to sell fruits in the barangay, but it took her three days to sell 10 kilos of oranges. Mary shared that they partly depended on whatever relief came to them. “Nu adda sagpaminsan nga pakipag-pordiyan ti lallakay mi ket isu. Ken adda met inted piman ti Church nga tig-half cavan, tapos dijay inted ti STPB, kasla ngay nagsisiave naop. (If our husbands got daily wage work once in a while, that was what we relied on. We also received half a cavan of rice from a church organization and relief goods from the STPB [Serve the People Brigade- Cordillera Disaster Response], which all arrived at the same time).”
The Serve the People Brigade- Cordillera Disaster Response (STPB-CDR) is a food relief initiative by members of progressive organizations first organized during typhoon Pepeng in 2009. Priority beneficiaries are urban families relying on informal livelihoods such as ambulant vendors, including the elderly, sick and those recovering from sickness, persons with disability, and stranded students.
Return to ili
Mary shared that the city’s plan for ambulant vendors is the “back to ili” program. “Nu ajay kuna da nga balik probinsiya. Isu ngrud nga ummay kami dituy city nga umay agbiruk ti pagsapulan mi, gapu awan ti lote mi, awan ti talon mi nga talunin mi dijay ili. Nu amin ngata ket adda paggalaan da dijay ili, apay pay lang nga ummay tayo dituy nga agpatiliw ti demolition.”(That’s the so-called “back to the province” program. But that’s why we migrated to the city — to look for work — since we do not have lands, we do not have farms to till in our villages. If we had a source of livelihood in the ili, why would we come here and risk being apprehended by the demolition team),” she said.
Gayett, who has been vending for 20 years, shares the same sentiments. Awan met ti mapan mi kwaen idjay probinsiya, kasanu ngay dagijay ubbing nga agiskwela, diyay lang met ti ammu mi nga pangalaan mi ti kanen mi, diyay panaglako. (We don’t have any source of livelihood in the province, how can we send our children to school? Ambulant vending is the only work we know, the only source of livelihood we have).”
Most of those who migrated to the city became informal workers. In sitio Piripin Bato in barangay Pico, La Trinidad, Benguet where Teresa and Jovy reside, the Saclit families who migrated there take on por dia work for survival. Some are farm workers receiving an average of P200-P250 per day. Others are seasonal construction workers paid P350-P400 a day. Other sources of livelihood are ambulant vending and hog raising.
These ambulant vendors are appealing to the city government to allow them to return to the streets to work. They are greatly aware of the health risks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but they do not have a choice. As Teresa declared, “Ti karit mi nga ambulant vendors iti gobyerno ket pangaasi yo ta ilukat yo dakami nga ambulant vendors nga aglako ta adda pangalaan mi ti pagbiag mi ken dadduma pay nga usaren mi. (We are calling on the government to please allow us to sell so we can have a source of livelihood to meet our needs).” They are willing to cooperate with the city government to comply with all safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. ~ Charm Rimando