KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/19 June) – The city government plans to open a night market here in a bid to further boost the city’s thriving micro-economy.
City Mayor Peter Miguel said they are currently drawing up plans and strategies for the establishment of the city’s night market, which is being primed to become the city’s next top attraction as well as revenue source.
“We’ve made the initial plans for this and we’re currently evaluating the possible sites within the city’s downtown area,” the mayor said.
Miguel said the planned night market will initially be patterned after a similar initiative launched several years ago by local government of Tagum City in Davao del Norte.
City officials led by Mayor Miguel visited Tagum and Digos City in Davao del Sur last week as part of the local government’s benchmarking study tour.
During their stop in Tagum, the mayor said they were specifically impressed with its flourishing night market that is now one of the area’s tourist attractions and income generator, contributing about
P78 million to the local government’s coffers last year.
It helped develop Tagum’s micro enterprises, opened stable livelihood opportunities to local residents and further livened up its “night life,” he said.
The mayor said the proposed night market here will take off from the popular “B-walk” and “Mcdo” stalls, which mushroomed these past years along the downtown area.
The “B-walk,” which is a monicker coined by locals after the popular Baywalk strip in Manila, refers to the roadside barbeque stalls that open every night in a street located at the back of the old city hall
compound here.
“Mcdo,” on the other hand, is but a pun on the popular American hamburger chain. It is short for the Visayan term “magduko-duko,” to refer to people in bowing position while eating home-made arroz caldo in roadside stalls located along the main highway leading to the city’s rotunda or “round ball” area.
Miguel said they are planning to develop an area that will serve as permanent home for the “B-walk” and the “Mcdo” stalls.
He said they will open up the site for other food and retail stalls that will only open at night time.
“What they have there (Tagum) is very doable here. We’re now studying some of their plans and policies regarding the project to determine the strategies that we can adopt and eventually replicate,” Miguel
said.
To generate more awareness and support for the initiative, the mayor said they are planning to send some local traders and members of the city council for another study tour in Tagum.
Miguel said he specifically wants the city council to look into the ordinances or policies that need to be amended or passed to facilitate the implementation of the proposed night market.
Meantime, aside from adopting Tagum’s night market project, the mayor said they are also planning to create an office similar to its economic enterprises unit.
He said the new office would manage the operations of local government-owned enterprises such as the public markets, abattoir and public terminal. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)
