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Brightly colored fruits are on offer at the Mambulao fruit section.

 

Fruit vendors get their section at the public market

 

by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

The fruit business in the public market of Mambulao has gained a fresh look.

Leveling up several notches higher from where it had languished since the 1950s, the upgrade came as a big surprise to Mambolenos.

These days, they are greeted daily with big, colorful changes that are unfolding right before their eyes.

Fruits of varied colors are in pleasing arrays on designated stalls that are reminiscent of the fruit section in almost all markets in cities such as those in Metro Manila.

 As the family members improved in earning power from their employment, the public market also has drawn more customers into its rows of stalls displaying fresh foods such as meat, fish, and vegetables.

However, the vendors selling fruits had no proper place for their wares.

Usually, they would be seen along the bangketa outside the market premises, in small corners inside the market, and in any place where there was a space to sit their bilao and plastic sheets to hold their fruits in the bangketa.

The physical changes in the fruit business came recently as an initiative of the local government of Mambulao.

A fruit vendor tends to her ware while waiting for her suki.

Before, a customer had to make a tour around the market premises to look for his/her fruit suki, who could change his location depending on the mood of the police officer who dealt with errant vendors.

Providing the fruit vendors their section would encourage them to keep sanitation and cleanliness always.

And of course, they are now taxed properly, which should not be a problem at all since they can now do business properly.

One overseas Mamboleno, who saw the pictures of the fruit stalls, said: “Hmm… na miss ko ang aking hometown… hindi ganyan ang palengke nang ako’y nandiyan pa… magandang pagbabago sa palengke … sana ay magcooperate ang mga vendors sa cleanliness ng section nila…” (Hmmm… I miss my hometown.. it did not look that way when I was still home… worthy change in our public market… I just hope the vendors keep cleanliness in their section…”)