Bottom line: consumer protection

Egay Uy .

THE Department of Trade and Industry released a new set of suggested retail prices (SRP) of basic necessities under the DTI monitoring function.  The new SRP dated May 4, 2019 supersedes the SRP as of Feb. 13, 2019.

As we have reported in an earlier column (“So far so good”), the prices of most of the monitored basic necessities were so far within the suggested retail prices based on the monitoring conducted by the DTI provincial office under Ms. Almer Masillones, its OIC provincial director.

At that time, the monitored prices in the market did not deviate much from the Feb. 13 SRP.  In fact, there were items whose average retail prices were lower than those of the average SRPs.

I compared the Feb. 13 and the May 4 SRPs and found out that of the average SRPs of nine basic necessities, namely, canned sardines, processed condensed milk, condensada, evaporated mili, meat loaf, beef loaf, toilet soap, patis, and instant noodles, only three have increased SRPs.

The average SRP of canned sardines increased by three percent, instant noodles by 1.8 percent, patis by 0.32 percent, and toilet soap SRP increased by a mere 0.17 percent.  The rest of the items that I compared still had the same SRPs as that of Feb.13. Aside from these items, the SRP of the other basic necessities that I compared remain at their February level.

According to the DTI, out of 235 items monitored, only eleven percent registered minimal price increases.  The prices of 89 percent of the monitored items therefore remained constant.  The DTI is continuously monitoring the prices of basic necessities and prime commodities vis-à-vis suggested retail prices of listed items, to protect the consumers from unreasonable price hikes.

In Cagayan de Oro, the City Price Coordinating Council is closely collaborating with the DTI Provincial Office to protect the interest of consumers.

In a separate observation, the price of rice in the market has noticeably gone down. There was in fact a retailer that sold regular milled rice at P32 per kilo.  On the other hand, the National Food Authority, whose function is now limited to ensure the availability of buffer stock of rice under the Rice Tariffication Law, was reported by Councilor George Goking to have been selling 10 kilos of NFA rice from the usual five kilos per buyer.

These observations could lead to one conclusion:  that the supply of rice in the market is abundant which could be due to the unrestricted importation of rice by the private sector.  Of course, the caveat is the adverse effects of cheaper imported rice to the rice farmers in the country.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)