By Chito Chavez Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte has pushed for the hiring of the city’s illegal vendors in her proposed food parks to legitimize their livelihood. Quezon City Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte. (Mark Balmores/MANILA BULLETIN) With the food parks’ growing popularity in the country, Belmonte said it will be wise for the illegal vendors to be employed in these eateries to sustain their source of income. She maintained the recurring problem of illegal vending will not be effectively dealt with if poor sidewalk vendors will not be provided with alternative sources of income or at least a place where they can legally sell their goods. “I want to make a program where we can ‘level up’ what they’re selling. Those selling street foods, for example, maybe we can put up food parks for them,” the vice mayor said in an interview. Foods parks have since become a popular dining craze in Metro Manila, especially in Quezon City. Similar to food courts in malls, these outdoor food hubs have different stalls that sell many and often unique food choices. Belmonte cited the well-known food parks in Maginhawa Street in UP Village, the Box Park in Tandang Sora and Pazar Food Park in North Fairview that continue to draw many customers. “Most of food and beverage stores at food parks are usually small, start-up enterprises, so following this concept, we can try this in helping the sidewalk vendors,” the vice mayor said. This could be done, Belmonte said, by coming up with a comprehensive program where illegal vendors are given sufficient assistance and training in business development and management. “We can identify places where lahat ng nagbebenta diyan, whether street foods, etc., may certificate of sanitation, na puede sila puntahan ng turista,” Belmonte pointed out, citing the popular street food hubs in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Through this food park program, Belmonte said the city government will be hitting two birds with one stone: reduce traffic congestion and provide illegal vendors with better means of livelihood. Battling poverty and unemployment is one of Belmonte’s priority programs as she had earlier called for the creation of a new department at the City Hall that will promote micro and small enterprises as a way of improving the people’s economic condition. Belmonte noted that many people are hesitant to start small businesses due to lack of capital and know-how, thus the need to put up the proposed Micro and Small Enterprise Development Council (MSEDC) to cater to their needs and interests.