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Baguio City mayor convenes price council

BAGUIO CITY (Nov. 4) — Mayor Braulio Yaranon is expected to convene the Local Price Coordinating Council in the city to tackle concerns on the prices of basic and prime communities and assure consumer protection here following the implementation of the Expanded Value Added Tax (E-VAT).

Chaired by the mayor, the council is expected to call for more vigorous consumer protection measures which also includes the heightened monitoring of prices of commodities in coordination with concerned agencies to safeguard consumers here against trade abuses.

Although confident of the local businessmen’s sense of fair play, the mayor nevertheless appealed to traders to keep prices at normal levels and warned unscrupulous traders against taking advantage of the situation by pulling off nefarious trade practices like unauthorized price adjustments, hoarding and others.

A city council, Councilor Daniel Fariñas has sought an intensified monitoring of prices of commodities here amid the EVAT imposition.

Fariñas, who is also a member of the price council as the chair of the city council committee on market, trade and commerce, proposed a resolution asking the Dept. of Trade and Industry (DTI) and other government agencies to implement a more rigid monitoring activity to protect the consumers against unauthorized price adjustments.

He said the DTI has assured that prices of basic goods remain stable within the first few days of implement of the EVAT but since it affected the prices of gas and crude oil which hike by as much as P3 per liter, a domino effect on the costs of other commodities is not far-fetched.

The alderman said it is expected that these prices shall continue to increase and will eventually affect the transportation sector which will pass it on to the riding public which in turn will result to an increase in the costs of the goods being transported.

“There is a need for the City Government to make sure that local traders shall not take this opportunity to excessively increase prices of local products and therefore there is a need to closely monitor such goods,” he said.

Fariñas’ measure will be tackled by the city council soon.

Apart from Fariñas, the other members of the local price council are Dept. of Agriculture regional director Sofronio Santiago; Community Environment and Natural Resources office Maximo Macli-ing; Dept. of Transportation and Communication regional director Alfredo Mondiguing; city prosecutor Benny Carantes; National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) director Juan Ngalob; city public information officer Ramon Dacawi; market group heads Lydia Carreon and Pablo Agulto; Baguio-Benguet Groceries and Supermarket Association president Dennis Sy; Baguio-La Trinidad Hardware and Electrical Association president Johnson Go; Baguio-Benguet Traders and Entrepreneurs Association president Jaime Mendoza; Pilipinas Shell Exclusive distributor Mary Jane Gacad; and Dept. of Interior and Local Government city director Jose Rapanut. # Aileen P. Refuerzo/PIO

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