CH eyes to revive price control council

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City government is planning to reactivate the Local Price Control Council so that prices of the basic commodities in the city will be strictly monitored.

City Market Administrator Irvin Cabales said the reactivation of the council is seen to curb the exorbitant prices of goods.

Cabales and Councilor Renato Osmeña Jr., the chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Markets, met the other day to discuss solutions to price hikes.

“Nag-estorya mi the other day, tungod ining fluctuation sa presyo sa baboy, other commodities nato, among gi-trace kun unsaon nato nga makahatag ta og suggested retail price (SRP) atong mga basic commodities sa merkado,” said Cabales.

“It so happened nga pag-trace nato, dili na active ang Local Price Control Council,” he said.

Cabales said the council will be the one to give recommendations on the prices of the basic commodities in the city’s markets.

Cebu City currently has 10 public markets.

“Hopefully, by next week maplastar na namo tanan aron everyday nata maghatag og suggested retail price sa mga commodities,” said Cabales.

“This council, mao ni siya ang aside sa maghatag og presyo, mao pud ni ang recommendatory council nga maghatag og sanction sa mga vendors nga dili mag-follow or mo-violate sa suggested nga presyo nga gihatag... Meaning to say ma-control nato ang presyo nga dili magpataka unya og pasaka ang mga vendors,” he said.

Price freeze?

On the other hand, the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Central Visayas said there is no need yet to declare a price freeze on the prices of pork and chicken meat in the region.

DA-7 Regional Director Salvador Diputado said the prices of pork and chicken in Region 7 are still within the normal range based on DA’s weekly monitoring.

He made the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte imposed a 60-day freeze in the prices of pork and chicken in Metro Manila due to exorbitant prices in markets.

To ensure that price control works, Partido Manggagawa-Cebu spokesperson Dennnis Derige said grassroots organizations must deputized to monitor prices and violators must be heavily penalized.

Derige said the purchasing power of workers’ wages have already depreciated by about P100 in Metro Cebu and elsewhere.

“Workers, both formal and informal, are suffering from the double whammy of high prices and mass layoffs. The government itself admitted that half of the 400,000 workers reported as retrenched last year were fired in the last quarter. This means the economic crisis is still worsening and the government should act fast,” Derige said.

The Associated Labor Unions (ALU) also said a perusal of the price monitoring list conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority as of January 6, 2021 demonstrated clearly the exorbitant increase in the prices of basic commodities from their entry farmgate price to their actual retail sale price.

ALU also urged DA, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, and Philippine National Police to go after and to actively prosecute price gouging middlemen, traders and retailers, and to shut down hoarders. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon, KQD (FREEMAN)