DR. YANGA’S COLLEGES, INC.

The subsequent condition of SMEs which experienced fire in Balagtas Public Market

ABSTRACT

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is defined to be a global and real backbone of
local economy. Particularly, SMEs in the Philippines portrays significant contributions to
the economic development wherein it makes up more than 99.6% of all registered
businesses in the country. Relevantly, multiple numbers of SMEs are located in Balagtas
Public Market in Balagtas, Bulacan. However, last April 2013, almost 75% of the market
was struck by a catastrophic fire, razing an estimated five million pesos of property. After
two years of reconstruction, the renovated Balagtas Public Market was open to
occupation in 2015. But fewer SMEs are observed to go back in the said marketplace. In
this regard, the researchers aimed to understand the subsequent condition of the SMEs
owners in Balagtas Public Market who were affected by the fire yet still chose to re-
establish their business in the same marketplace, through having an in-depth analysis of
their lived experiences as SMEs owners including the struggles, changes and recovery
stage they undergone in the fire aftermath. The researchers utilize qualitative
phenomenological approach. Informants were selected through convenience, snowball
and purposive sampling satisfying the set criteria: (1) SMEs owners; (2) Those that
experienced fire in Balagtas Public Market and (3) Those who decided to re-establish
their business after the fire still at the same marketplace. Conducting semi-structured
interviews, the researchers interviewed ten informants as guided by the principle of data
saturation. After the interviews, the recorded audios were transcribed and the data
gathered was analyzed thoroughly. Four emergent themes were formed from analysis of
data depicting the present condition of the SMEs owners. These themes include R-easons
for business continuity which represents the reasons why they decided to rebuild their
SMEs, I-mmediate actions for recovery which tackles the immediate business processes
they did to recover, S-upport systems which refers to the support they got to further
recover and E-ffects of the fire which evaluates the impact of fire in terms of personal,
financial, business operations, and competition. Based on the findings, it is then
concluded that majority of the SMEs owners in Balagtas Public Market are still striving
to rise from the blazed and to regain what they have lost even after four years of the fire
aftermath. These findings lead to the recommendation for the concerning field of the
community, specifically SMEs owners as they need to integrate the importance of
executing business disaster preparedness. Hence, for them to integrate this, the
researchers created business disaster recovery planning template for SMEs. Additionally,
the study suggests that the Balagtas Public Market needs to regularly orient the occupants
regarding hazard management, the local government should also manage proper funding
to support their people when disaster like this occur, Accountancy and Business
Management (ABM) students for them to integrate disaster recovery planning when they
start their business in the future and for future researches that will be done in association
of this study.

Keywords: Balagtas Public Market, SMEs, rise from the blazed, phenomenological,
business disaster recovery planning