Divisoria is the central market place of MetroManila where goods from all over the Philippines are brought for distribution to other places. Bagsakan wika nga. It is always a busy place and majority of the store owners with stalls are Chinese, half-Chinese, etc. It is also where the vendors are either inside buildings or outside in the streets. What is difficult for the consumers is the way the street vendors hug the sidewalks. Hardly is there space for us to move about or negotiate our way to and through streets especially during the Christmas season, and election time when officials need money for campaigning and antagonizing the vendors will bring on resistance to "kotong" or bribe money.
The place is reeking with bad odor, and has mountainous garbage of plastic bags, styrofoam boxes, vegetables rotten and half good, fruit peelings and over ripe fruits thrown into the streets. Some chinese owners have complained that the streetvendors have been stealing their customers as they retreat readily once it becomes difficult to reach the former's stores.
Hence, a big task lies ahead for all people who want change to get into the picture and help solve the problems of overcrowding and merciless throwing of garbage.
The people are helpless because of connivance between the authorities and the vendors who pay them a "kotong" just so they could continue to sell in those illegal spaces.
I am thinking if the Chinese exporters who profit a lot from the business transactions in Divisoria and the Fil-American nationalistic groups if they can create a task force to pressure the barangays in the area as well as Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila to do something collaborative to solve these problems. Help!- Emma Orozco
Painting by Jackson Pollock, Untitled
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