The price monitoring task force convened on Friday, September 8 at the Mayor’s Conference Room to discuss the operation for price monitoring in public markets. | Courtesy of Cebu City PIO/Jinky Rosit
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City’s Price Monitoring Task Force (PMTF) will only focus on inspecting and monitoring the rice prices in the city’s public markets for now.
PMTF Head Suzanne Ardosa said that they would not apprehend retailers who would not follow the mandated price cap.
What the price monitoring task force will do
Ardosa told the city’s public information office (PIO) that they would check the retailers’ compliance with the price cap and strengthen their reminders about it.
The PMTF is also willing to hear the concerns of the rice retailers about President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order (EO) No. 39.
The EO 39 which took effect last September 5, Tuesday, mandated that the price ceiling for the regular-milled rice is at P41 per kilogram, while for the well-milled rice is at P45 per kilogram.
With this, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said in a virtual press conference on Thursday, September 7, that he wanted to convene the city’s PMTF and let them enforce Marcos’ EO.
Rama expressed that no one should take advantage of the price ceiling while he was out for Russia for a three-day economic forum.
Two teams to monitor north, south districts
As per Rama’s order, Ardosa who is also the head of the Department of Manpower Development and Placement, convened the PMTF and organized two teams assigned to inspect the city’s north and south districts.
The personnel from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Agriculture would accompany the teams.
According to the PIO, the PMTF is composed of the personnel from the Cebu City Market Authority, City Agriculture Office, Business Processing and Licensing Office, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Police personnel would also accompany them for security.
What DTI-7 will do
On the other hand, DTI-7 assured in a previous report that they would not penalize retailers who would fail to follow the new price cap on rice.
Joy Suralta, chief of DTI-7 Consumer Protection Division earlier said that DTI-7 would focus on monitoring the price caps, especially the situations in the wet markets and supermarkets.
Monitoring the price caps would allow DTI to check how much would be the retailers’ loss upon following the mandated price ceiling.
Through this, the agency would know how much the retailers would need so they could provide them with cash assistance.
DTI-7 Regional Director Maria Elena Arbon said that they would ask the retailers their purchase price and selling price before September 5.
“We are trying our best to build the database (retailers’ inventory) so that ready ta when the final guidelines are available for the financial assistance,” she said in an interview with reporters on September 6.
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