Council probes missing fees in night market operations

The Cebu City Council continues to dig deeper into the alleged irregularities involving the night market operations—this time, on its previous collections—where an executive session is being called to look into the operations of the former Colon Night Markets, specifically to determine why no special permit fees were collected by the City.

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This comes after Councilor Paul Labra stood before the body and delivered his privilege speech to outline his take on the disputed operation of the night market that has been surfacing in recent days.

Labra then stressed that he looked into the matter to “seek the truth,” adding that questions have been raised regarding the current operation of the Colon Night Market.

The councilor recalled that its current operation has been called “illegal and disadvantageous to the city.” On the other hand, he added, Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival has asserted that the current setup is more advantageous due to the income it generates.

With these differing positions, Labra reiterated that this pushed him to look into the matter further in order to form a fair and informed view.

In line with this, Labra said that his office gathered data and secured relevant documents from the Cebu City Treasurer's Office (CTO).

“We requested and examined the records and performed a comparison of the operations of the Colon Night Market at present and in previous years,” said Labra.

Labra, who has just been elected to the council this year, clarified that his statements are based solely on the data and official records he has obtained.