‘Traders must explain soaring prices of goods in probe’

MANILA, Philippines — Traders and middlemen must give the proper responses to congressmen, once the House committee on trade and industry continues its inquiry on the soaring prices of basic goods despite plunging farmgate prices, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said last Monday.

Romualdez vowed that people would be made accountable if the invited traders won’t be able to justify the runaway prices of their products.

“We will call the traders, the middlemen. We will ask why there is a huge gap… This is the farmgate and what you’re selling is this – which has a large difference,” the House Speaker said at a press conference with Deputy Majority Leader for Communications and ACT-CIS Partylist Rep. Erwin Tulfo and trade panel chairman, Iloilo 4th District Rep. Ferjenel Biron.

“So, we will inquire as to why that is. If there is no adequate explanation, if they’re too greedy for the profits, we need to tell them to moderate that. Because if not, we’ll all be affected and of course, someone will be held responsible for that, right?” Romualdez said.

Earlier Monday, the committee held the briefing on the growing disparity between farmgate prices and retail prices, as ordered by the Speaker himself.

Romualdez, Tulfo and Biron all expressed disappointment over the admission of resource persons from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) that there was no immediate solution to the disparity.

So now, it’s the traders and middlemen who will be the resource persons in the next hearing, said Romualdez.

“So, to the profiteers, to the traders, to the middlemen who are too greedy with their profits, pay attention. Moderate your greed and try to be more reasonable,” said the leader of the 300-plus strong House of Representatives.

Romualdez said the growing disparity between farmgate prices and retail prices must be abated for the sake of Filipino farmers and consumers.

He said that while he has nothing against businessmen who are out to make a profit, they should still be mindful of their countrymen who are struggling to make ends meet.

“We have no problem with traders needing to make a profit, but it must be just enough – not so much that consumers are being overly-affected. Life is already hard, especially in this hot weather, right? We need to show a little sympathy to our fellow Filipinos.” Romualdez said.

‘DA inutile’

House leaders have observed that government agencies tasked to ensure the low cost of basic commodities in the market seemed “inutile” or useless in fighting the continued skyrocketing of prices.

“During our hearing, it was revealed that the Department of Agriculture has in fact monitoring, surveillance and adjudication powers, but they’re inutile. It was never done by the department,” Biron told reporters.

“We asked them what did they do to profiteers, wholesalers, middlemen that have been violating for the longest time, and it was very unfortunate when they revealed they did nothing,” the Iloilo congressman recounted further, as shown during the panel’s Monday hearing.

Panel chairman Biron himself noticed that the “mark-up” was 200 percent, as reckoned from farmgate prices of these basic commodities at the retail outlets in the market, primarily because even “importers have low import cost or landed cost for their commodities.”

“It still ends up with a very high price once it is already in the retail market,” he observed. “It was an eye-opener for the committee to pursue serious actions against all these violators. So, in our subsequent hearings, I’m sure we will be able to know who these people are.”

For one, Biron got a confirmation from the Organization of Supermarkets that their profit margin was only pegged at eight percent, while they have 10 percent for “refrigerated commodities.”

“In other words, the profit of the end-user, the supermarket, is very miniscule,” he said.

Tulfo, for his part, declared that profits of these unscrupulous businessmen, along with middlemen, were way above what should be fair. “Their profit is too much. That’s why the Speaker said they should moderate their greed.”

“For now, we are requesting them to please lower their prices, but of course, we also have the power to direct the DA or the DTI to use their powers of prosecution, as in Congress I believe we can do that,” the former broadcast journalist warned.