DUMAGUETE CITY – The Consumer Advocates, Inc. (CAI), a group attached to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in this city, is pushing for the creation of an inter-agency task force that will monitor the prices of commodities, particularly fresh fish, in the local markets.
DTI provincial chief Javier Fortunato, Jr. on Friday confirmed that the CAI and the DTI had met earlier this week to discuss the complaints raised by residents and netizens on the unusually high prices of fish in the Dumaguete market for several weeks now.
Fortunato reiterated his earlier statement that DTI is only a support agency and takes on a “reactive” stand as it is not their mandate and jurisdiction to regulate the prices of fish.
The agency’s mandate covers only manufactured goods and other commodities, while fish, according to Fortunato, is under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
BFAR, however, had announced that their mandate does not include price monitoring and control.
The question now is who is the proper agency or authority that has the responsibility to check on the prices of fish at the Dumaguete market, according to Mark Raygan Garcia, one of the founding members of the CAI.
Garcia on Friday also disclosed that the CAI had tackled during their meeting this week concerns such as the law of supply and demand which is being blamed for the skyrocketing of prices of fish in the local market.
Another concern was to determine whether, indeed, there was a lack of supply of fish at the Dumaguete market and if so, what were the reasons behind it, Garcia said.
The CAI, headed by Linda Basmayor, issued a statement Thursday expressing their concern over the spike of prices of fish in recent weeks, which the group noted had continued to climb to unusual levels since the start of the holiday season and onwards.
“CAI recognizes price fluctuations for certain goods, such as fish, as understandable, especially during the holidays and when there are weather disturbances that affect the market’s ability to meet demand. But the jump in the price was seemingly unprecedented and came across irregular to ordinary consumers,” the statement said.
Garcia explained that their group is seeking technical expertise to look into the volume of fish coming into Dumaguete.
It is understandable that prices of fish increase usually during the holiday season, during or after a storm or when it’s full moon, but the prices bounce back days later. However, in this case, it took weeks until now for the prices to be “higher than normal”, according to CAI.
Prices of first-class fish, such as “tarugho”, went up as much as PHP800 per kilo when the usual price range was pegged at PHP300 to PHP380. Even the so-called “poor man’s fish” or “manulsog pula ug ikog” in the local dialect and “galunggong” in Tagalog, usually priced at less than PHP200 per kilo, went beyond that in the past weeks.
Garcia further explained they are hoping that government agencies and the local government unit of Dumaguete would step in and do something concrete, such as creating a task force for price monitoring, rather than simply saying the price hike is attributed to the law of supply and demand.
The CAI also noted there is no regular monitoring system, no available historical price data and price fluctuations of fish, and “weak coordination among government agencies in the analysis and dissemination of data.”
As of Friday, DTI provincial chief Fortunato said the prices of fish have dropped to PHP400 a kilo for the first class types, but he could not say for sure whether this has something to do with supply and demand or because of the media hype since early this week on the spike in fish prices.
He said he has talked to Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo regarding the proposed creation of a task force but the local chief executive said he would still look into this. (Mary Judaline Partlow/PNA)
