Community Journalism

From the gray pavements of a tennis court rose the multi-colored tents of what was left of the stalls of the UP Shopping Center (SC), which housed 48 businesses in the 44-year-old establishment. The tents and tenants of the building remained upright and in business-as-usual mode -- rain, shine, or even after a fire.

 

According to the spot report from Quezon City Fire Department (QCFD), the March 8 fire originated from the mezzanine ceiling of a fruit shake stand at the southwest of the building which is mainly composed of lightweight construction materials. The fire rapidly spread from the fruit shake stand throughout the building.

 

It lasted for an hour and took a toll on estimate of P500,000 damage to property of the 48 occupants of the SC. One of them was Edward Fernando, owner of the Tara Let's Computer House, who lamented how his one-man business in 1998 grew together with the other neighboring stalls amidst the stall owners who were preoccupied with sweeping the puddles of water left from the wake of a summer rain.

 

Then 22-year-old Library and Information Science graduate Fernando prided himself in the fact that while the adjacent stalls had their typewriters clacking from 8-to-5, his Windows 98 system did wonders so much faster.

 

“Way back 1998, I was with one of the stalls in [sic] the middle, renting one computer for 1,500 pesos at the second floor of the stall. To my advantage, I knew how to operate a computer. What I can do, they can’t,” he said. At 42 years old, Fernando has realized that this is their strength.

 

 

Edward Fernando, 42, owner of the Tara Let’s Computer House and Officer-In-Charge of the UP Shopping Center Stallholders Association recalls his starting years at the University of the Philippines Shopping Center.

 

 

“We exist as a group, we complement with [sic] each other's businesses,” said Fernando. After 20 years, the Tara Let's Computer House has employed a maximum of 9 workers and has expanded from printing to computer assembly, and down to retrieving the lost files of worrisome undergraduates who had deadlines to beat.

 

Yet, as Fernando makes a beeline to the school supplies store perched within a large blue tent, he lives on with the tradition -- when a need arises, one need not look farther than the adjacent stalls to find an answer. He needed a cutter and the 8-year-old D’Holy Book Copy Center and General Merchandise delivered.

 

BUSINESS AS USUAL

 

Myrna Gumban, 49, store owner of the D’Holy Book, tries to keep business as usual.

 

Four years before Gumban established D’Holy Book, occupants of the Shopping Center found the building to have been barricaded in hopes of their removal from the establishment but the occupants formed a human chain and rallied for their retention in the SCr in 2004.

 

In 2008, Gumban adopted the Miranda Bookstore from a close friend who had been trying to keep her bookstore business above the waters. Gumban feared that her knowledge as a housewife cannot sustain the bookstore for long. Eventually, the textbooks were phased out and Gumban has managed to ask the perfect question since: What do you need?

 

 

Pictured: D’Holy Book store-helper arranges the piles of bond paper recovered from the ruined SC building.

 

“Little by little, through the students, I slowly learned what they needed. And if they needed more, I just got more,” said Gumban as she recalled her many trips to her school supplies supplier in Divisoria in hopes to fulfill the needs of the many students that began to visit her shop.

 

 

Pictured: Piles of water-drenched notebooks recovered from the SC D’Holy Book stall left to air-dry.

 

Yet, the fire has ravaged some of her merchandise and most of the drenched items are tucked away at the back of her tent, almost a month short of getting air-dried. From a daily profit of P40,000 pesos, Gumban’s daily profit decreased to P2,000 pesos and even had to reduce her staff from nine to three employees.

 

 

Pictured: After the fire, D’Holy Book store’s debt to its suppliers amounted to around P123,000.

 

On the afternoon of the fire, UP Business Concessions Office (BCO) Director Dr. Raquel B. Florendo talked with the stall owners and asked them to fill out a list comprised of those interested towards occupying the vacant lots in buildings like the Vinzon’s Hall, University Food Service, and Centennial Residence Hall and the stalls will be picked through drawing lots.

 

“Many of us enlisted in hopes of getting back on our feet as soon as possible. However, after the meeting of the UP SC Stallholders Association, we realized that we shouldn’t stray apart from each other,” said Gumban, citing the economic and spatial convenience of adjacent stalls and one-stop shopping experience.

 

The UP SC Stallholders Association has been planning to install an electric generator for the consumption of all of the stalls in the tennis court, especially for the printing and photocopying businesses.

 

Still, both the stall owners fear that the lack of reinforcements almost a month after the fire may last for a longer period of time.

 

Fernando, also the Secretary of the UP SC Association, likens this to them being “killed softly” through the abrupt increase in rental fees from 2,000 pesos until 2015 to 13,000 pesos until 2018 before the March 8 fire.

 

“It’s been almost a month but we [the stalls] still have no electricity, water, or even comfort rooms but still [sic] we continue in giving services to the UP community,” said Fernando. “It’s like we’re existing on our own but thankfully, the student-leaders are super active at this time,” he added.

 

In an interview with Rappler on March 8, Chancellor Tan said there are plans to construct a new building by March 2019, a year later after the fire.

 

SC CONCERT

 

Fourteen days after the fire, a 600-strong crowd of an audience filled the College of Science Amphitheater for a benefit concert organized by the Sagip SC Coalition, a newly formed volunteer group composed of different student formations that aim to gather support for the SC stall owners. Bands such as Ben&Ben and Oh Flamingo performed on the event.

 

According to the coalition’s Facebook page, the benefit concert was able to collect P44,421 to be donated for the rebuilding of SC. The number of concert attendees and collected amount exceeded the target of the organizers of the event, UP Diliman University Student Council Chairperson Benjie Aquino said.

 

Meanwhile, using the hashtags #SagipSC and #BangonSC, various student organizations posted statements of solidarity with the stall owners, as well as calls for donation drives.

 

UP President Danilo Concepcion pledged full support in the rehabilitation of the building, according to UP Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan.

 

Fernando said he’s thankful for the initiative of the students. “We treasure [the initiatives] so much… in the near future, we will find a way to repay such gesture,” he said.

 

All hope is not lost for Fernando, as well as the other stall owners of the Shopping Center. He says their association only has one objective as of the moment -- to get back in service regardless if helps becomes available from the responsible agency in the University.

 

 

Myrna Gumban, 49, tearfully shares her wishes towards the student, worker, and administrative sector within the University of the Philippines - Diliman Community.

 

Gumban knows that the times have been hard. “I hope it reaches them, the concern that we have waited for support from them, back-up…”, she said.

 

Yet in the midst of a teary-voice, hope glimmers upon the realization that she is not alone.

 

“As long as we are certain that if not all, majority of the UP community groups in various sectors are with us supporting our goal, our objective [is] to continue giving services; stay together and fight for the rebuilding of the new shopping center,” Fernando said.