UP’s small-time vendors presented a letter with a note in outgoing President Danilo Concepcion’s handwriting assuring vendors displaced from the Main Library that they will be given prioritized slots for relocation.
This note was in response to a letter written in January 2022 by Samahang Manininda sa UP Campus Inc. (SMUPC) President Narry Hernandez, alongside then University Student Council Chairperson Sean Thakur and Student Regent John Isaac Punzalan.
SMUPC released a statement on January 23 lamenting how, despite this letter and subsequent promises that they would be relocted to the new UP Food Hub in front of the College of Fine Arts, vendors were blindsided when the food hub was erected without slots for them.
Hernandez said that in a meeting in 2021, Concepcion reassured them that they would be prioritized for slots in the new facility, but that the promise never materialized and the administration simply told them that a third party had entered.
READ: https://sinag.press/news/2023/01/24/maliliit-na-manininda-ng-up-initsapuwera-sa-bagong-food-hub/
“Yung mga pinangako sa aming mga maliliit na manininda, nawala lahat. Nabudol kami sa mga pangako,” he said as he recounted the same story during the “Laos sa Pagtatapos” system-wide multi-sectoral mobilization as Concepcion presided over the last Board of Regents meeting for his term.
WATCH: https://twitter.com/PahayagangKAPP/status/1618461450590355456?s=20&t=vrealSPd5RzB0PXvw6JYpw
Hernandez said that until now, the administration still did not recognize the vendors’ service to the students, teachers, and the wider UP community.
“Para sa amin, hindi naman ito tungkol sa kikitain. Tungkol ito sa serbisyo sa komunidad,” Hernandez said.
More commercialization to come?
In an interview with SINAG, Hernandez said that these broken promises do not bode well for the vendors, as future projects such as the Shopping Center may take the same course.
“Kung nagawa na nila ito para sa Food Hub, sinong nagsasabing hindi nila magagawa sa susunod,” he stated.
Hernandez said that there have been rumblings about SM Savemore’s interest in the new shopping center being erected in Area 2.
If SM takes over, Hernandez says that this will mean even more slots lost for small-time vendors as Concepcion also promised two slots in the shopping center.
The vendors hope that the new administration will be more open to dialogue with them, and that it will finally recognize their service to the community.
