Fire can both be a source of destruction and a source of
opportunity. In May 1993, a fire destroyed the 0.8 hectare
public market in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique. This disaster
halted trade in the municipality by leaving the businessmen
and vendors, whose main venue for income was the market,
with no place to sell their goods. Rebuilding the market
was impossible for the municipality, since it does not have
sufficient funds. This is where the Build, Lease, and Transfer
scheme came in handy.
With this scheme, the public market would be rehabilitated
and rebuilt only at a minimal cost, since the stall owners
would be paying for the partial costs incurred. Soon after
this scheme was hatched, the creation of the new building
was on its way. The municipal government built the posts
and the floor for the second level. The stall owners had
to build three walls, since the adjacent stall owner would
build the fourth one.
Since the stall owners would be shouldering some
of the costs, the market only charges P1 per square meter
for 32 square meters, so that the stall owners will not
make full use of their budget. They are then given 25 years
to operate the stalls they owned.
The construction of the new building, now called
the Business Park, was estimated to cost P40 million. However,
the total amount the municipal government spent on the repair
was only P12 million, less than half of the estimated cost.
This project not only illustrated how the municipality can
be cost-efficient, but also showed how it takes care of
its residents by promoting local businesses. One example
is the denial of the Jollibee Food Corporation’s application
to occupy the market’s second floor, as this would
take over the local bakeries and eateries. With the promotion
of the small businesses in the area, the volume of business
increased by 95 percent.
The San Jose Business Park Business Association was
also created as a result of this project. This group formulated
policies that advertised sanitation through proper garbage
collection.
