Rolling stores should benefit masa, not unscrupulous retailers — solon

Amid reports that the Arroyo administration will expand its fleet of rolling stores across the country, opposition Senator Teresa Aquino oreta has called on Malacañang to ensure the plan would truly beneift the masa instead of lining the pockets of unscrupulous retailers who divert cheap goods sold in these outlets to the blackmarket.

While she welcomed reports that more rolling stores would be deployed across the country to provide ordinary consumers with greater access to more affordable goods, Oreta expressed concern that the real goal behind this plan might be subverted by the profit-raking schemes of some retailers authorized to operate these stores.

Oreta pointed to recurring reports about basic commodities sold via state-run rolling stores being diverted and sold at higher rates in the black market.

"Before Malacannang thinks of expanding its fleet of rolling stores, it should first make sure that these outlets serve their true purpose, which is to make basic commodities within the reach of poor consumers, instead of jacking up the profits of unscrupulous retailers who make a mockery of the government’s goal to provide the ordinary Filipino with greater access to low-priced goods," Oreta said.

According to reports, the National Food Authority has expanded its roster of Tindahan ni Gloriang Labandera rolling stores from 1,000 to 1,510 outlets nationwide in line with President Arroyo’s State-of-the-Nation pledge last year.

But Oreta said President Arroyo’s efforts to make food and other basic commodities within the reach of the ordinary Filipino will all go for naught if authorities are not able to stop this alleged diversion of prime commodities that are supposed to be sold cheap in depressed communities under a project run by the NFA.

Oreta said that if reports of the diversion of rolling store goods to the blackmarket were true, those behind this suspected scam have been making a killing by depriving the masa of affordable goods because operators of these outlets acquire their products at lower prices but sell them at much higher rates in the black market.

Among the products being sold outside the rolling store is NFA rice, which is reportedly "resacked" and sold to consumers at a steeper price, usually at P18 to 20 per kilo when it is supposed to be sold only at P14 per kilo, regardless of variety, in Tindahan ni Gloria Labandera rolling stores.

The NFA, according to officials, sell rice to rolling store operators at only P13 per kilo at a maximum of 70 sacks of rice per order.

According to an NFA report, 184 units of rolling stores are being managed by the agency while 1,324 more are handled by its private partners.

"Considering that rice is a vital commodity for most Filipinos, these roling stores selling the product in the black market are making a killing at the expense of ordinary consumers, who expect the government to ease their plight but are instead forced to live with this scam," Oreta said.

Oreta, who is at the forefront of the snowballing clamor in the Congress for the Palace to give top priority to consumer welfare and protection, urged the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the NFA to dispatch monitoring teams to check against traders selling NFA goods in the black market.

She recalled that it was President Arroyo herself who correctly pointed out that food eat up most of the budget of ordinary Filipinos, which all the more highlights the need for the DTI and NFA to check against this rolling-store scam.

Oreta likewise recalled that Mrs. Arroyo had pledged to keep the prices of basic goods, particularly food items, stable despite the recent series of oil price increases and other external economic factors.