mmda’s harsh dispersal of sidewalk vendors

i admire bayani fernando.

he truly is doing something.

but i have to disagree with this – his method of eradicating sidewalk vendors. it’s cruel and inhuman. i admit, these vendors can really be irksome and a big cause of heavy traffics. but view the situation in their own set of glasses. forget that you own a car and is running late to work. for these guys they are only earning a living. where do you usually put-up stalls to sell? not in jungles, i guess. but in places where people are.

when methods like running after these vendors are implemented (sometimes they really make a painful, hilarious show), i can compare it to shooing away flies from a pot of excrement. they do nothing about the dung just shoo the flies away. and it’s totally useless. futile.

the vendors adapts too. they’ll know when to strike and when to go low in operation.

and this becomes an endless chase.

if i abhor mmda’s solution so much, then what can i suggest?

address the root of the problem.

running after the vendors is a quick-fix solution. discipline is its goal. but you can never enforce it on anyone. the individual must choose it on his own.

most of the time it makes the matter worse. these people are already on the edge (we call them illegal vendors). ain’t this drastic action pushing them to venture farther down to what is against the law?

we want a beautiful, orderly, and peaceful city. but when survival is on the stake, you can hardly think about this things.