By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

THE Dededo flea market, known as the bargain hunters’ paradise, has been renamed “Mayor Jose A. Rivera Marketplace” in honor of the late mayor who pioneered the project in the mid-80s.
Gov. Felix P. Camacho last week signed into law Bill 250, which requires the Department of Parks and Recreation to design and mount at the market site a commemorative plaque that bears the late mayor’s name.
The flea market, which is a major landmark in Dededo, is open from the break of dawn until late morning on Saturdays and Sundays. Vendors sell fruits and vegetables, clothes and shoes, kitchenware, and other goods, mostly imported from the Philippines, at affordable prices. Roadside kitchenettes serve breakfast for early risers.
Bill 250, now Public Law 28-173, was introduced by Rivera’s nephew, Sen. Rory Respicio, D-Agana Heights, in the 28th Legislature.
Rivera passed away on Christmas day of 2005 after his long bout with cancer.
Rivera, a Republican, began his career in public service in 1947 when he joined the U.S. Navy Civil Service where he served as a firefighter and later rose to become the first Chamorro assistant fire chief. He was in federal service until 1981.
In 1984, he was elected into office and served as assistant commissioner of Dededo from 1985 to 1988. He served as mayor of Guam’s most populated district from 1989 until his retirement in 2001.