CHAPTER I

Problem and Its Setting

Introduction

Divisoria is known locally for its low-priced goods in Philippines. It

gives the consumers various options for their needs and wants. Half quarter of
2019, Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno Domagoso implemented the "Bagong
Maynila" Project. The clearing operation is one of the loudest issues that plays a
big role and affects the lives of the citizens that may also interrupts the profit of
the street vendors in Divisoria.

In this study, the researchers figure out the different situations and
experiences of sidewalk vendors in Divisoria, Manila after the clearing operation
happened.

Background of the Study

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) defines informal sector that

occurs “at a low level of organization, with little or no division between labor and
capital as factors of production and on a small scale. Labor relations – where
they exist – are based mostly on casual employment, kinship or personal and
social relations rather than contractual arrangements with formal guarantees.” In
addition, Avirgan and his peers believed that employees, such as street vendors,
construction workers, and people who are self-employed, without formal
contracts, fixed wages, and exempted from taxes are considered as one of the
informal sectors.

In Philippines, Divisoria recognized as ‘mother of all markets’ for

being a flea market for decades. Divisoria is a Spanish term which means
division. It is a commercial center in Tondo, Manila and known for its shops that
sell low-priced goods and its diverse manufacturing activities.

The improper disposal of the vendors and the consumers were a problem,
especially in a place like Divisoria. The waste being thrown by the vendors and

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the consumers were not disposed of in the proper area or the designated area
which causes pollution in the surroundings of the Divisoria and adds foul odor to
the location (Villalobos, n.d.).

Moreover, the struggled with corruption and lack of adequate data

is already known to public which will serve as basis for decision-making. The
mass enables to participate in city planning for them to know what is the
processes ongoing inside and outside the city hall. Pasig starts off right by
creating task forces to collect data on health, education, housing, mobility and
city income and revenue, all of which will serve as baseline data before planning
and moving forward. Creating a freedom-of-information (FOI) legislation was also
a win for Pasig last year, while the open governance with Moreno in manila
wanting all procurement documents to be posted online, and other related
activities to be streamed on the city’s social media pages (Palma, 2019).

Prominently supported is Mayor Isko Moreno's marking of Bagong

Maynila. From spotless, tolerable boulevards and associated locale, to the
genuinely necessary green spaces and stops inside Manila's urban texture, his
vision to bring back the old greatness of the capital city is acclaimed by residents.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno met with neighborhood specialists

pushing for natural change through workmanship, sorted out by Unesco Artist for
Peace Cecile Guidote-Alvarez and previous Senator Heherson Alvarez.
(Bermudez, 2019)

Numerous additionally gesture towards his mandates for

Intramuros and Binondo's Chinatown, his redevelopment plans for Manila Zoo,
and his ecological activities that incorporate the establishment of water
catchment and sunlight-based boards in government funded schools. While
increasingly comprehensive measures for road clearing and movement of the
casual economy still can't seem to be tended to, the change of Manila is by all
accounts off to a beginning (Palma, 2019).

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Statement of the Problem

This study aims to find out the outcome of the profitability of the
sidewalk vendors in Divisoria after the “Bagong Maynila” project implemented.

Precisely, the purpose of the study is the following:

1. How does the “Bagong Maynila” project affects the lives of sidewalk
vendors?
2. How does the “Bagong Manila” project affects the profitability of
sidewalk vendors?
3. How did the sidewalk vendors adjust to the "Bagong Maynila"
project?

Scope and Delimitation

The research focuses on the effect of the clearing operations done

in Manila, specifically in Divisoria, to the street vendors’ profits.

A maximum of 5 street vendors for each who were selling

wardrobes, foods, and toys will play a role as the respondents to the study.
Wherein the respondents must have experience within six months to one year of
selling in Divisoria.

The item the street vendor sells as well as the season of a certain
item may also affect their profit. In view of that, the researchers settled on the
three general items to evaluate clearly the effect to the sidewalk vendors’
profitability.

The researchers restricted the location considering their capability

to study the difficulties of the sidewalk vendors. Furthermore, the time that will be
consumed to find the respondents, as well as their cooperation are the
vulnerability of the study.

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 Additionally, the researchers lack experiences that also experience
the situation of the sidewalk vendors. This violates one qualitative design which
is personal experience and engagement. Wherein, the researchers got to
experience the life of the sidewalk vendors, and even go to know their
perceptions.

Significance of the Study

The result of the research will benefit to the following:

Street vendors, this may help the street vendors to come up

with better choice in selling products with a higher profit.

Local community, this study may lead to public awareness

regarding with the underground economy and the lifestyle of the
people, particularly the sidewalk vendors, in vending.

Local government, the findings of this study may be used

as awareness to the local government that pertains to the profit of
street vendors after the implementation of the local development.

Future researchers, the ideas presented may be used as

reference in conducting new researches or in testing the validity of
other related findings.

Definition of Terms

 Interrupts – affects the continuous progress of the income of street

vendors
 Profit – the surplus from the income after deducting from all expenses
 Vulnerability – weakness of the study

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 CHAPTER II

Review Related Literature

LOCAL LITERATURE

Something that Filipinos buy on the street are the street foods. These
street foods are very common that anyone can see on the street here in
Philippines. There would be on stick or cups that could be fried or not. This
delicious food can be found in public areas.

A lot of people, especially the doctors, and other people in the health or
medical field, advised everyone to lessen or avoid eating foods that can be found
on the street (Calopez, et. al., 2017).

Food safety is something that we must be concerned about. That is why

everyone is advised to be aware and careful to the food we eat at all times
(Calopez, et. al., 2017).

The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) came from the informal
sector by 43 percent. There are formal works that have no other choice but to
create their own employment or become informal employees, the informal sector
has contributed a sizeable share to the coffers of the economy. Hence, there is a
deficit of programs and projects intended specifically for their upliftment
(Cambarihan & Sucuahi, 2016). In the yearly General Appropriations Act (GAA),
there is an obvious lack of programs for their protection and socio-political-
economic empowerment. These enterprises are operated by own-account
workers, which may employ unpaid family workers as well as occasional,

5
seasonally hired workers. These enterprises may also be owned and operated by
employers which may employ less than 10 employees on a continuous basis.
Thus, as officially recognized and defined; the informal sector includes the
following sub-sectors, including the street or sidewalk vendors (Dorotan, 2010).

According to Hasan and Jandoc (2010), the profit of the independently

employed in assembling was observed to associate with 20 points higher than
that of casual wage workers or changeless compensation workers. Going to the
development in wages and profit, both are observed to be very powerless. In
fact, without settlements from abroad laborers, family unit earnings would have
been fundamentally lower in 2006 contrasted with 1994. As independent work
offers away to wage business, particularly easygoing compensation work in the
administrations area, the key strategy challenges handling the moderate
development of wages and profit shown by the two LFS and FIES information.

FOREIGN LITERATURE

Using of ready to eat food and sold by street vendors is growing fast in
different countries. Street food, are sold in different places examples are
roadsides, markets and others. It plays as an important part in daily diet of many
people in urban places.

Street foods make an important role in socio-economic: It supplies as a

regular source of income for millions of men and women in different countries. In
Indonesia, street food gives also to the local economic growth. This non-formal
activity makes an annual salary of US $1,000,000 in taxes (FAO, 2010).

According to the study in Egypt, 24% of street food is infected by Listeria.

This bacterium is the responsible for listeriosis and is showed by septicemia,
meningitis and intrauterine infections, directing into forced abortion of pregnant
women. In Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa researchers exposed that the
hygiene of ready to eat street food is poor (Makelele, et. al., 2015).

Legalizing street vending was put on the City Council’s agenda because of
the desire to protect immigrants in light of Trump’s election. There were fears that

6
vendors would be at a greater risk for deportation, and vendors had already
organized to try to decriminalize their occupation. For decades, vendors were
receiving tickets, getting their equipment confiscated, and having to go to court
as a result of their place in the informal economy.

Rudy Espinoza (2018) stated, “it really requires a lot of political will to drive
something like this forward” and the legalization of street vending, in particular,
“requires cross-departmental partnerships within city and state government”. Due
to the slow progress in policy changes, in order to better understand the impact
legalization had on vendors, it is first important to note the history of how
enforcement impacted vendors and their businesses for decades.

Conditioned by different sociopolitical and economic backgrounds, the

night market has become a unique space for many of these street vendors who
find economic reassurance and social meaning in their enterprises in the areas,
In relation to the street vendors, strategies can refer to innovation and resilience
as they make the most of their place shifting from one place to another and their
current subsistence spaces (Roever & Skinner, 2016).

A qualification was also considered such as: the vendors should have
already experienced the rules of the night market under the term of the previous
city mayor and during the term of the current city mayor.

The night market is interpreted as a reminder of the departures of vendors

as they proceed in their quest for a better life and living conditions. This makes
the night market a testament to their endurance and capacities to create
opportunities for themselves and their families. Street vending in the night market
can be historically situated along the development of the formal and informal
economy discourse.

The night markets serve as a location where a diverse selection of goods

and food are on display. This can be recognized in street vendors’ attire, the
manner of transaction between vendors and consumers, food options and

7
preferences, and the variety of language and accents one can hear in the night
market.

People turn in into street vending because of the story of their family’s
quest for better life and opportunities, and how vending is playing a crucial role in
their lives as a family unit.

According to the study, the connection between regulators and street

vendors continue to fragment and bounded in different countries (Forkour,
Akuoko & Yeboah, 2017). The idea of arrangement, power, social media and
perception are used to determine the various techniques of street vendors in
obtaining access to the urban public spaces in different places in the world.

Street vending distribute as a main source of work and income in urban

places all over the world. Street vendors may work in permanent locations or
may move easily, conveying their supplies to their customers. As a result, to the
competition of interest in street vendors and regulators, street vending is
depending largely in arrangement between vendors, costumers, and regulators.
Arrangement can for spaces, for economic chances, and for power and it is
involved the general public, shop owners, and urban regulators. Among in street
vendors, regulators, pedestrian, and the general public, arrangement may
happen as regards in use of space even it is acceptable and unacceptable. As
well as it can be recognized as a right of vendors to earn a money from public
spaces even it is against to the rights in maintaining public spaces (Forkour,
Akuoko & Yeboah, 2017).

RELEVANT STUDY

The State of Street Vending in the Urban Economy

According to Chakraborty and Koley (2018), Street vending is a global

phenomenon and it is most noticeable aspect of casual division in any types of
informal sectors inside our country.

8
 The contribution of street vendors to urban life also goes beyond to their
own employment as an individual or also called as self-employment (Chandra &
Jain, 2019). They supply demands for a large amount of variety ranges of
services provided by another informal workers. It is also said, a generally
accepted theory also suggests that street vendors avoid paying taxes and fees.
Recent researches also provided insights into the logic behind the choices for
policy for their evictions and relocations to negligible trading sites, and ongoing
harassments. In the case of the evictions, one goal or motivation is trying to be
able to pursue the “modern”, “ideal” and “hygienic” city. The assumption is that
street vending harbors "dirt" and causes "backwardness" (Roever & Skinner,
2016).

Challenges of Street Vendors

Improved safety products of street vendors are raising an awareness

programs with the involvement of local authorities, government departments and
other organizations. The hygienic process of their products is important to them,
but running water, washing facilities, and toilettes are often unavailable. They
need to maintain the cleanliness of their own products and the tools and
equipments of it, but the profit that they can get to their business was not that
much. They prefer to use economical products than chemical products because
they don't have enough money to buy the expensive one. They ensure the
conditions of their own products so that they don't get condemnations to their
customers. (Aquino, et.al., 2015; Remize, 2014)

Sonawane (2017) stated on his study the various challenges that street
vendors facing in street vending. They risk their lives despite the lack of
sanitation and work place security. Additionally, street vending provides hard
time to rest because of their working hours that affects their health. He also said
that vendors are insecure because of being self-employed with low income and
as their profession is viewed as illegal.

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)

said that “most street vendors provide the main source of income for their

9
households, bringing food to their families and paying school fees for their
children.” Some of street vendors chose to street vending because there’s no
more suitable work considering their age but do not want to be unemployed
(Handoyo, 2018).

SYNTHESIS

Street vendors are a part of the casual part of the economy. They
appreciate the advantages of being casual, for example, reserve funds on
zoning, tax and different expenses. Simultaneously they experience the
entanglements, such as danger of destruction, absence of lawful security and
lower effectiveness of capital use.

Sidewalk vendors depend for a significant part on their individual social

capital in executing their business. They have confided in relations with their
providers, regularly family or 'suki'. A suki is a confided in connection, with whom
a standard trade of business happens, in light of trust and more, common
understandings.

It is considered as part of underground economy. Vending in sidewalk are

the only source of income to some street vendors to survive their daily lives and
experience the success. Though various consequences had experience by the
sidewalk vendors, they keep on vending.

As part of the city development, a clearing operation happened in

Divisoria, Manila. The researchers would like to have knowledge of the effects on
profitability of the sidewalk vendors after the project being implemented.

10
 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The researchers use a phenomenological approach as the study focuses

on the effects of the clearing operation on the sidewalk vendors lives. Moreover,
the approach is suitable to gather the data to have in-depth understanding of
different life experiences that had been experience of the participants to develop
a strong conclusion and call of action.

Research Locale

The study will be conducted along Divisoria market, Manila, Metro Manila.
It is surrounded by various markets between Tabora and Sto. Cristo streets in
Binondo, Manila area.

Population and Samples

The sidewalk vendors that sell in Divisoria, Manila are the respondents for
this study. The population were divided into three groups: sidewalk vendors that
sell (1) wardrobes, (2) foods, and (3) toys. Maximum of 5 participants for each
group with a stratified random sampling is the method that the researchers used
for their sample. Total of 15 participants are chosen because it is more suitable
for the phenomenological approach.

Research Instrument

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 A semi-structured questionnaire under subject-completed instrument is
going to be used as a research instrument in this study. The questions in the
questionnaire will be focusing on how the "Bagong Maynila" Project affected the
lives of the Sidewalk Vendors and its effects on their profit and how they adjusted
to the changes "Bagong Maynila" Project brought. A questionnaire is going to be
used to be able to determine the difficulties or challenges of the sidewalk vendors
to adapt or adjust.

Data Collection Procedure

Before the interview takes place, the researchers will go to the place of
their research and find the respondents that are suitable to their scope and
delimitation. The researchers will ask for their permission to use different devices
to record their statements, whether it is an audio or a video recording. Also, the
researchers will also give them assurance about their anonymity and the
confidentiality of the information gathered. Lastly, we will thank them and give
them little gifts as their compensation for their participation.

Data Analysis Procedure

The researchers systematized the gathered data from the interview. It

uses in-depth understanding to interpret, contradict and examine the
perspectives of the participants. Applying the open coding to determine the
comparisons of the collected data to the narrow idea. The questions ask to the
respondents help to properly comprehend the effect of “Bagong Maynila” Project
to the Side walk vendors. Conducting this interview to the side walk vendors in
divisorial, let us perceive the viewpoint of their lifestyle after the “Bagong
Maynila” project.

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