Apolitical ‘Mr. Palengke’

He is not a political creature like his foremost predecessor ex-Senator and defeated presidential candidate Mar Roxas II who as Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary assumed the monicker “Mr. Palengke” during past administrations. But incumbent DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez plays to the hilt the role of “Mr. Palengke” in trying to bring down prices of basic goods and products amid rising inflation in the country for the past few months.

Lopez, however, quickly retorted he does not need any monicker like “Mr. Palengke” to do his job in keeping a close watch and monitoring of prices of basic foods and products consumed by many Filipinos to make them more affordable, especially to the low-income people.

Lopez was formerly connected with RFM Corp. where he worked for 22 years and rose through the ranks until he was named vice president and executive assistant to the RFM president. Having worked in this food and beverage company involved in the processing and manufacturing of flour, bread and other flour-based products, Lopez knows very well how the producers of processed and manufactured food products in the markets do not and cannot raise prices more than what the consumers could afford to purchase. 

 “Consumers will naturally just shift to cheaper priced food products,” the DTI chief cited.

In my first ever meeting and talking with Lopez as featured guest in our Kapihan sa Manila Bay at Cafe Adriatico in Malate, the DTI Secretary struck me as someone with single-minded focus “to tame” inflation down to the wet markets where it mattered most for poor Filipino families. Under his watch, the DTI has expanded the coverage of the agency’s police powers to impose Suggested Retail Prices (SRP) on rice and other food products now in joint forces with the Department of Agriculture (DA).

This was by virtue of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) entered into by two Executive Departments acting upon the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte to immediately address the inflation woes that are seriously affecting the majority of low-income Filipino families. Under the MOA, Lopez explained, the DTI is empowered to impose SRP and monitor its compliance on sellers of agricultural, poultry and meat products. It used to be only the DA that has the authority to do so.

Because of this MOA, he said, there are now 209 items that the DTI can impose SRP on from the previous 145 consumer goods – from canned goods to powdered milk, condiments like vinegar, soy sauce, to soaps and bottled water. Aside from expanded SRP coverage, he added, the DTI has increased its monitoring of sari-sari stores, groceries, supermarkets and wet markets all over the country from the current 400 a week to 600 every week.

The DTI Secretary disclosed President Duterte issued these marching orders to his economic team to come up with direct and drastic measures to arrest what could be artificially induced price increases by hoarders and profiteers. As reported to him, the Chief Executive denounced apparent activities by those trying to cash in with developing situations in the global markets – from the stiff increases in the price of crude oil in the world market to peso-dollar fluctuations due to rising interest rates in the United States.

Lopez repeated the line of Duterte’s economic managers, saying the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), which took effect starting Jan. 1 this year, did not push up the inflation. Inflation reached as much as 6.7% average rate last month. But due to supply problems related to rice importation and bad weather that destroyed rice crops, Lopez noted, the price of our country’s food staple rose 10 times more expensive. For the September inflation rate, he said rice accounted for 0.10% compared to less than 0.01% of the inflation rate before TRAIN took effect.

“The good news is the prices of vegetables in the (wet) markets have been going down already,” Lopez told us. Based from the latest DTI price monitoring, Lopez run down prices of vegetables slowly declining already in the wet markets.

The best news though that the DTI Secretary sought to highlight during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay is the reported “triple digit” of foreign direct investments (FDI) in millions of dollars that have been poured into the Philippines. Though he did not go into details, Lopez strongly took exceptions to claims by anti-administration critics that the reported FDIs were nothing but “pledged” investments that came out from the state and official visits abroad that President Duterte embarked on since assuming office in June 2016.

The DTI Secretary is a permanent fixture in the official delegation in many of these foreign trips of President Duterte where he also met with various businessmen’s groups. “Our President is like a ‘rock star’ in these countries that we went to. He is very humble and very sincere in his meetings with fellow heads of state to whom he even humbly bows as he shakes hand with them,” Lopez enthused. 

Indeed, Lopez agreed President Duterte is the “best salesman” for the Philippines that has now become an investment destination even as there were so much international media reports on alleged extra-judicial killings in the government’s anti-drug war. “It’s a non-issue as far as foreign investors are concerned,” the DTI Secretary insisted.

The DTI Secretary likewise sought to assuage fears and concerns raised on projected loss of new foreign investments and expansion plans should the second package of the proposed tax reforms program dubbed as Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities, or TRABAHO bill, is passed into law.

Various foreign chambers of commerce, Lopez admitted, have sought audience with him to be clarified on the TRABAHO bill. He explained to them TRABAHO bill, would, in fact, enhance the competitiveness and productivity of their companies with the new tax incentives as reward for good performance and export production.

From the world markets to small sari-sari stores, the apolitical DTI Secretary certainly makes a good copy as “Mr. Palengke” in real life.