Two of the most crowded streets in Manila have been purged of vendors following a series of cleanup operations on Tuesday.
On his second day of office, Mayor Isko Moreno ordered a series of clearing operations in a bid to decongest some of Manila’s streets that had become traffic chokepoints over the past couple of years.
A den of vendors who notoriously set their stalls on the street has been cleared from the stretch of CM Recto Avenue in Divisoria while a similar activity was also conducted along Carriedo Street in Sta. Cruz on the same day.
Meanwhile, two persons were caught collecting payoffs from vendors in Blumentritt market were arrested on Tuesday.
The suspects were apprehended after a police officer posed as a vendor handed them the marked money.
The suspects exposed the extent of the alleged corrupt activities in the public markets of Manila.
Maj. Rosalino Ibay of the Special Mayor’s Reaction Team said that the suspects would collect P20 to P30 three times a day from legitimate vendors and were given “collection tickets” not sanctioned by the city government, The STAR reported.
One of the suspects said that million of pesos were being collected weekly from Blumentritt market alone.
