Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) general manager Nicolas Torre III shared his personal connection to public market vendors during a speech at the Quezon City Vendors Summit, recalling how a small tailoring stall once sustained his family.

Addressing hundreds of vendors and market stallholders, Torre recounted his upbringing in Dumangas, Iloilo, where his mother operated a small shop inside the local public market to support his family and put his four siblings through college.

“When I look at you, I see my mother,” Torre said, describing how growing up around public markets shaped his perspective on small entrepreneurs. “A market stall supported our family. That is where my mother worked hard, and that is where our daily meals and tuition came from.”

Torre stressed that government policies affecting vendors must balance urban order with compassion, acknowledging that behind every market stall is a family relying on daily earnings for basic living expenses, electricity and education.

He urged vendors to cooperate with authorities to keep public markets, sidewalks and surrounding communities orderly, clean and safe, asserting that livelihoods and public order do not have to be in conflict.