NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines – Two Ilolio City public markets with SM mall components that were redeveloped via a P2-billion public-private partnership (PPP) have boosted Iloilo City’s “palengke (market) tour.”

Eight months since reopening in October last year, both the Iloilo Central Market (ICM) and Iloilo Terminal Market (ITM) now serve as the “new face” for Iloilo City, also known as the “City of Love”.

Before the market redevelopment was undertaken by SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SM Prime) sometime in 2022, the “palengke tour” at the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market centered mainly on “batchoy (Ilonggo noodle soup) and halo-halo (shaved ice dessert) tourism.” (READ: ‘That is sweet!’ Gordon Ramsay judges Ninong Ry’s, Judy Ann Santos’ halo-halo)

People, especially visitors from other regions, flocked to both the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market just to eat the famous Ilonggo batchoy and halo-halo.

As they say, one shouldn’t leave Iloilo City without going to the Iloilo Central Market or the Iloilo Terminal Market for the best batchoy and halo-halo in town. (Rundown: La Paz Batchoy, Pancit Molo, and the iconic Iloilo eats)

But as the years went by, the now 114-year Iloilo Central Market or the “Tienda Mayor” for Iloilo natives, and the post-war Iloilo Terminal Market became filthy and dilapidated. The Iloilo Terminal Market, or previously called Iloilo Super Market, was built post-World War II, and underwent its first major reconstruction 23 years ago.

Their distasteful market conditions prompted former Iloilo City mayor Jerry Treñas to have a P2-billion PPP with SM Prime for the sake of the two historical and cultural heritage public markets in the city.

Though the city spent nothing on these two market redevelopments, Treñas had been heavily criticized for entering into a PPP.

But he weathered all opposition from various sectors, including the media.

Now, Treñas’ persistence to pursue such PPP has borne fruits.

Both the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market now boast respective three-storey structures, each with a mall component: an SM At Iloilo Central Market and an SM At Iloilo Terminal Market. The combination has been a boon for the city’s tourism.

“Both public markets are now part of our city’s tourism package,” Iloilo City Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu told Rappler on Friday, May 15. “They both serve as models of public markets across the country because… having a mall component, hence, [they’re] beyond the usual.”

The Sy-led SM Prime, one of the largest integrated property developers in Asia, redeveloped both the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market on a 50-50 basis.

Each structure has 50% public market and 50% mall component with rooftop parking space.

Breakthroughs

As a result, the city’s “palengke tour” has witnessed a breakthrough.

From the usual “batchoy and halo-halo tourism,” the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market, out of public curiosity, are now “swamped” with local, national, and foreign tourists everyday because of their unique feature of having a mall component.

The Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market, both home to 2,000 market vendors, are much cleaner, attracting more tourists to come shop, dine and unwind.

A new enticing gimmick is the daily busking inside both markets.

Treñas-Chu said they hired an event coordinator just to think of how best to make both the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market family-oriented market places and tourist destinations as well.

“It was never expected how these two public markets of ours that were once ridiculed for being filthy and dilapited but [are] now turning into the city’s major tourist destinations,” Treñas-Chu said.

Iloilo City as the benchmark

In addition, Treñas-Chu said the city has recently earned the moniker “Benchmarking Capital” of the Philippines in terms of PPP.

“Yes, unexpected, but it’s happening now,” Tren̈as-Chu added.

“That’s why almost everyday we have visitors from other local government units across the country, doing benchmarking in our two public markets,” Treñas-Chu said.

Visitors from other local government units now want to know how the public market PPP “greatly works” in Iloilo City.

Maricel Mabaquiao, Iloilo City’s head of Local Economic Enterprise Department (LEED), said they’re targeting more than P100 million in market revenue this year.

Last year, the city government exceeded its P81 million market revenue by generating P101 million.

“This year, with the redeveloped ICM and ITM, we are optimistic to exceed again from our target of more than P100 million market income,” Mabaquiao said.

She said said that with the mall component in the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market, they can already feel the impact after eight months.

Though they have no exact details on the monetary contribution of the mall components to the two enterprises, Mabaquiao said he expects that “we will earn soonest.”

The PPP for two city’s public markets has a life span of 25 years, extendable for another 25.

Under Section 21 of the PPP contract, the lessee — SM Prime — will be responsible for the operations, maintenance and management of the mall section for both public markets.

The lessor — the city government — under Section 22, will take charge of the operations, maintenance and management of the market section in the two markets.

Every seven years, SM Prime will repair and upgrade both public markets.

Model PPP

But what makes this PPP also unique is that the lessee must priortize Ilonggo investors as tenants at the mall section of the Iloilo Central Market.

But in the Iloilo Terminal Market, the mall is open to both Ilonggo and non-Ilonggo investors.

Each stall at the market section of the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market measures 2×2 meters with monthly rent of P420 per month for permanent vendors, and P20 per day via cash ticket for transient vendors.

David Abraham Garcia, head of the city’s PPP division, said that across the country, Iloilo City has the only successful or model PPP for a public market among the highly-urbanized and component cities.

Garcia didn’t deny that since its conceptualization in 2022 to construction work, the redevelopment of both the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market had turned into “battlefields” over controversies and even criticisms from media.

Many vendors feared they would be displaced once the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market were redeveloped.

“Rumors on the alleged displacement of original vendors and exhorbitant monthly stall rental were defintely untrue,” said Garcia.

Both the Iloilo Central Market and the Iloilo Terminal Market now serve as model public markets across the country.

“And we are proud of these two markets of ours now. This is really for our dear vendors and investors,” Treñas-Chu said. “Beyond their new, clean and beautiful looks, they boost our pride and dignity as Ilonggos.”

Uswag Negosyo Academy for vendors

And to complement the market redevelopment, the city government enrolled vendors to the city-run Uswag Negosyo Academy (UNA) for an eight-weekend program.

There, vendors were trained and coached on the latest in marketing, financial literacy, among others, so that their business can thrive amid challenging times.

UNA was Treñas-Chu’s “brainchild” when she was still an executive assistant of her father, then-mayor Jerry.

“If we made it… to level up our markets, we also need to level up the knowledge and the marketing skills of our market vendors,” she said. “This as both market redevelopment and retooling, and upscaling of vendors must go hand-in-hand.”

As a result, dried fish vendor Michelle Aponio, 39, of Veterans Village, Barangay Zone 8, Iloilo City, said, “Sang una, hadluk kami sa market redevelopment. Dumdum gid namon madulaan na kami stall ukon ang amon bulanan nga renta maga-saka. Tanan gali, wala matabo.“

(Before we were afraid about the market development. We thought all the while that we would be displaced or our monthly market rental will be increased. But all these never happened.)

Aponio, who has been vending at Iloilo Central Market for over a decade already, said she now earns almost P1,000 per day or P30,000 per month, and just paying P420 for monthly rental.

Second-generation vendor Wilnor Waquez, 40, also confessed that, for 15 years, it’s the first time that they’re experiencing good sales almost every day.

Both Aponio and Waquez attributed their higher incomes to the orderliness and tidiness of the markets.

They now appreciate how cleanliness matters to their daily businesses, as it really attracts costumers.

Treñas-Chu, meanwhile, cited her father’s resolve and persistence to really push for the redevelopment of two public markets via PPP, despite encountering numerous setbacks and criticisms.

With these, she inherited a noteworthy project that really transformed their two historical public markets beyond cultural heritage as they became bustling centers of Iloilo City’s booming economy. – Rappler.com