Villar scores cartel over cement prices

Cement prices have soared by close to a staggering 300 percent during the past few years due to the insidious manipulation of the foreign cement cartel, Sen. Manuel Villar charged yesterday.

Villar stressed that from as low as P40 per bag in the 1990s, cement now costs between P130 to as high as P150 per bag. "This reflects a staggering increase of close to 300 percent," said Villar. As recent as December 1998, cement only cost P44 per bag.

"The hardest hit by these manipulative activities of the cement cartel are the Filipino people as it will cost more to build mass-housing units, farm-to-market roads, bridges and other structures needed for our development," he added.

The Senate president pro-tempore lamented that despite the absence of an increase in demand the past four years, prices have mysteriously skyrocketed.

"This is the only product I know of where prices go up despite the absence of a demand surge. It is clear that it is not market forces at work here but the sinister machinations of a cartel," stressed Villar.

Villar accused the four-company cartel (Cemex, Blue Circle, Lafarge and Holderbank) of conspiring to cripple the local cement industry years back in order to take over and eventually raise prices beyond normal levels.

The legislator said that the harmful actuations of the cartel must be put to a stop, pointing out that their activities are sabotaging the country’s very development.