DAGUPAN CITY — Mayor Belen Fernandez has announced on Saturday that the three-story Malimgas Public Market here will soon be renovated to entice more buyers and sellers and make it more income-generating.
More that PHP6 million pesos has been earmarked by the local government to improve the facilities of Malimgas, the biggest and most modern public market in Dagupan, built sometime in 2004.
City Engineer Virginia Rosario said the fish section in the first floor will be tiled. The tables of meat vendors will also be tiled and fitted with stainless.
Noting that the Malimgas market was where buyers from Dagupan and other towns do their marketing daily, Fernandez said every effort was being done by the city government to make the market clean and beautiful to be true to its name.
The world “malimgas” means clean and beautiful in the Pangasinan dialect.
At least PHP4 million will be used to improve the first floor of the market alone. The remaining PHP2 million will be used at the second floor to replace the flooring, also with tiles.
Both floors of the market will be air-conditioned to be par with private shopping malls.
Meanwhile, Rosario told newsmen that the third floor of the market building — designed for vehicle parking — will also be renovated to widen its road alley because it is too narrow and dangerous for vehicles going there to park.
This is aside from the corrections to be done on the sharp ascent and descent of the facility, which many drivers may be unprepared to take.
Fernandez announced that the Malimgas Market is now fully occupied in contrast with the situation when she just took over the reins of the city government in 2013, which was only half-occupied.
The income that it now generates is more than enough to pay for the amortization of the loan obtained by the city in 2003 to bankroll the construction of the project.
The mayor recalled that in the past they had to draw funds from other sources to pay for the quarterly amortization as the income from Malimgas was not enough.
City Treasurer Romelita Alcantara said the PHP280-million loan obtained by the city from the Land Bank of the Philippines for the construction of Malimgas would be fully paid by March this year. (PNA)
