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Saturday, July 09, 2005
Espinoza: Prices of basic commodities continue to increase
By Elias L. Espinoza
IGNORED. The traffic problem on Gorordo Ave. in front of Sacred Heart School is caused by the non-implementation of an ordinance prohibiting stopping or parking of vehicles there.
Traffic personnel have practically allowed double parking in the area every afternoon. This is also true in every street in the city where there is a school.
The “no stopping and no parking” signs installed along these roads have become useless. Traffic enforcers appear to have resigned themselves to the fact that they cannot enforce the ordinance.
When I was a member of the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) board, I always reminded enforcers on this ordinance. I even suggested to the board to remove the signs if traffic personnel can’t enforce the measure.
The administration of Sacred Heart School also failed to provide a parking area for its students.
Imagine that the number of students there is almost equivalent to the number of vehicles that use the road every morning and afternoon.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama and his councilors want to dip their hands again into this traffic problem. The vice mayor and his councilors should not forget to bring with them Citom’s citation tickets.
Given the number of drivers violating the “no parking and no stopping” ordinance, the officials will be surprised that a booklet of citation tickets will not be enough.
The vice mayor and the councilors will be rendering a terrific traffic job for the City Government. Well, perhaps Mike thinks that as a vice mayor, he is also a public servant. And directing traffic is one of his responsibilities.
PRICES. After the Supreme Court (SC) stopped the implementation of expanded value-added tax (E-VAT), prices of fuel were rolled back. What most of us perhaps do not know is that prices of some commodities in the supermarkets have already gone up.
Despite the SC restraining order, prices of other commodities are not stable. A housewife complained that the price of a box of powdered milk has continuously increased.
She said this particular milk brand was priced at P106.50 in January. In April, it went up by 25 centavos and just last month, the price increased to P108.85. In the first week of July, the price increased again from P108.85 to P112.
It appears that only fuel products went back to their previous prices.
I suspect this is not the first time this happened. This could have happened before, every time a new tax measure was implemented or fuel prices were increased. Isn’t this what we call exploitation or profiteering?
Is the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) aware of this scheme by some profiteers? In this time of economic crisis, profiteering is a crime. However, I have yet to hear of a case filed against profiteers.
When I went to the fish market last Thursday, I learned that prices of fish have also gone up by about 45 percent. Imagine, danggit was sold for P130 a kilo. The last time I checked, it was priced at P80 a kilo.
The fish vendor did not even budge when I kidded him that the implementation of E-VAT was suspended after the SC issued a restraining order. The vendor smiled at me and said, “Way labot ng E-VAT diri sir (E-VAT has nothing to do with us here, sir).”
You may wonder what I was doing at the fish market in Talamban. Well, I am glad to state here that I do the weekly task of buying fish at the wet market.
Prices of fresh vegetables, fruits and other goods at the market have also gone up. It is the imposition of new tax measures and the never-ending increase in the price of fuel that caused domino effects in almost everything.
(July 9, 2005 issue)
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