Last August 6, 2024, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued Memorandum Circular No. 2024-110, providing guidelines on the implementation of “Tapat at Ligtas na Pamilihang Pambarangay (TALIPAPA)” Project.
The guidelines are pursuant to the Local Government Code’s provisions mandating LGUs to provide efficient and effective basic services and facilities, including satellite markets or public markets in the barangay, where viable.
Satellite markets, the DILG stated, not only help ensure food security within each community but also generate additional revenue for the barangay and provide livelihood and employment opportunities for their residents.
It defines satellite markets as those with less than 50 stalls that cater to a limited number of customers. This may cover the small and informal markets, talipapa, mercado, including temporary makeshift or improvised stalls in the barangays, and clusters of vendors along the road or junction, among others.
Under MC 2024-110, the barangay may collect reasonable fees and charges on public and private satellite markets, with the revenue to be used as additional income to further support the delivery of basic services to their constituents.
It may impose satellite market fees or vending fees as well as reasonable rental charges for the occupany or use of any part of a government-owned satellite market or parking space.
“The collection of local fees, charges, and other impositions must not be unjust, excessive, oppressive, or confiscatory,” Sec. Benjamin Abalos Jr. warned, adding that such public and private satellite markets should adhere to basic standards on traffic and mobility, fair weighing, cleanliness and sanitation, waste disposal, and construction and establishment.
To incorporate the provisions of the memorandum circular, the barangay would have to enact an ordinance on satellite market operations and establish a Barangay Satellite Market Management Team.
For barangay-owned or barangay-operated satellite markets, the barangay may coordinate and request from its concerned municipal government, or other private individual, any vacant lot or property near the barangay that can be used to establish its satellite market.
Clearly, the guidelines are meant to create an additional source of revenue for the barangay as well as encourage its residents to help supply the satellite market with agricultural products.
The guidelines, however, need further clarification, particularly with regards to existing satellite markets.
In barangay Bigaa, Virac, both sides of a 100-meter stretch of the national highway are lined with meat shops, fish stalls and stores selling vegetables and other cooking necessities.
All these stores built on private land are presumably operating with permits issued by Virac LGU and cannot be covered by a barangay ordinance establishing the satellite market.
What the barangay can impose are the payment for barangay clearance as well as vending fees for vendors occupying part of the road or open spaces, which would have to be regulated by the municipal government.
The municipal government should now coordinate with barangays where there are already existing makeshift markets along roads on the reasonable assumption that many barangay councils would want to take advantage of the opportunity to earn and enhance their limited revenues.