ABSTRACT
In the mid-1980s, Carol Esteban,1 at 22 years old, began to look for work in Baguio City, Philippines to augment her husband’s irregular earnings in periodic wage labor. Given the lack of formal sector employment opportunities for men and women throughout the Philippines, Carol, even with two years of college education, found herself with little choice but to carve out a particularized space in which to earn a living. Carol, now 45 years old, explains that in order to financially support her three children, she took up work as a street vendor joining her mother, Nancy Balbao who sells seasonal fruits. Nancy, who had started her street sales in the early 1970s after arriving from Mountain Province north of Baguio City, is currently accompanied in business by Carol as well as by her two other daughters who sell peanut products and local vegetables. As start-up capital for vending, Carol borrowed 1,500 Philippine pesos (US$33.00)2 from family members and fellow vendors using these funds to purchase her stock of cooked rice and cassava cakes. Street traders like Carol foster such interconnected livelihood relationships because they must continually negotiate Baguio City Tax Ordinance Number 2000-001 (City of Baguio 2000-2001: 50-51) that, in accordance with past laws, prohibits “any person to sell merchandise” in public places “outside of the market premises.” In on-the-ground practice, however, city officials charged with enforcing this law, implement its restrictions on some days while turning a blind eye to its violations on others, citing compassion for vendors’ situation.
