By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/Philippine News Agency
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Antique office said the Automatic Price Ceiling (APC) was not implemented in the municipality of Sibalom despite being under state of calamity.
DTI-Antique Trade and Industry Development Specialist Glen Fernando said in an interview Tuesday they had a meeting with the Municipal Price Coordinating Council (MPCC) of Sibalom last May 3 and they decided not to implement APC considering that the prices of the prime and basic commodities being monitored by the DTI remained stable.
“During our meeting with the MPCC of Sibalom last May 3 it was discussed that there will be no need to implement APC considering that the El Niño phenomenon had not hampered the supply of goods nor affected the prices of commodities,” Fernando said.
He said that it was also decided that Councilor Cassey Butiong will bring this matter up with their local council so that an addendum stating that there would be no need to implement APC could be included in their original resolution declaring the state of calamity.
The Municipality of Sibalom was placed under the state of calamity last April 5 where Resolution Number 039-2019 was passed due to the “widespread destruction of the crops, livestock, and other agricultural products” caused by the El Niño phenomenon.
Fernando added during their meeting it was found out that there was a need for the Office of the Provincial Agriculture (OPA) and the Sibalom Municipal Agriculture Office to reconcile their data on the affected crops particularly on palay so that there will be accurate figure on the damage.
“As a result of our meeting also it was decided that we will just continue our intensified monitoring of the prices of the prime and basic commodities in the municipality of Sibalom so that we would have a database,” he said.
Fernando said that only two towns in Antique have declared a state of calamity — Sibalom and Sebaste.
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