By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — Negrense Cong. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna party-list asked President Benigno Aquino III to impose a price ceiling on rice, garlic and other basic and prime commodities.
Colmenares said unscrupulous traders “artificially jack up the prices” of the said products, “to the detriment of consumers, farmers and even retailers.”
In his petition filed with the Office of the President, he said the price ceiling should focus on “traders or hoarders who sell their products at an inordinately high price.”
Anyone who violates the price ceiling must be made criminally liable, Colmenares said.
“We also ask the President to order that all the imported rice confiscated by BOC (Bureau of Customs) be given to NFA (National Food Authority) instead of sold to private traders,” he said.
Colmenares believes the prices were being “artificially manipulated” by hoarders.
“It is wrong for government officials to protect and defend these hoarders by saying that the jacked-up price is a result of lean months,” he said.
The solon hopes the President will grant his petition. “People are suffering for each day the government tarries in imposing price control,” he said.
Pending Aquino’s action on his petition, Colmenares urged the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) to impose a suggested retail price (SRP).
Under the Price Act, while only the President can impose a price ceiling, the NPCC can impose an SRP on commodities.
“While a price ceiling, which immediately penalizes a violator with a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment, has more teeth than a suggested retail price, we have to ask for immediate relief from the NPCC,” he said. “We do not know how long it will take for President Aquino to intervene or if he would grant our petition.”/PN
