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Sunday, October 12, 2003
RDC: Check cement cost
By Karen M. Flores
CEBU -- After the Cebu Provincial Government, it is now the Regional Development Council (RDC) 7 that is complaining about the high price of cement in Central Visayas compared to other areas in the country.
The executive committee of RDC 7 approved a resolution during a meeting last Friday asking the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to investigate why cement is more expensive in Region 7 when at least two brands are manufactured in Cebu.
The DTI was tasked to submit a report to the economic development committee during its next meeting on November 11. The issue may be taken up during the RDC's full Council meeting in Tagbilaran City on December 5.
It was Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado, RDC chairman, who brought up the issue during the execom meeting in Dumaguete City Friday afternoon.
Aumentado cited prevailing prices of brands of cement made in Cebu that are higher in Central Visayas than in Luzon, when the companies would have already spent for shipment.
Cheap elsewhere
Also during the meeting, the RDC execom endorsed for funding consideration the P2.157-billion Cebu-Negros Interconnection Uprating Project.
Aumentado and RDC private sector representative Valeriano "Bobit" Avila conducted an inspection Friday morning on the area the project covers with officials of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco).
It involves installing one more submarine cable between Samboan town in southern Cebu and Negros Island so an additional 100 megawatts can pass between the two islands.
Earlier this year, Cebu Gov. Pablo Garcia urged DTI to call a meeting with the Cebu Contractors' Association (CCA), consumers, local officials and dealers to thresh out the issue on the alleged unfair pricing of locally manufactured cement.
Garcia had said that the DTI can find out the source in the disparity of the prices of cement manufactured by the two companies operating in the southern part of the province with those made in other provinces when bought here.
"Cartel"
Willy T. Go of WTG Construction, a member of the CCA, gathered receipts he presented to Garcia that showed that cement made in Cebu is cheaper when bought in other provinces.
The same batch of receipts also showed that cement manufactured in Luzon could be bought here at a price lower than those made by the two cement factories in Cebu.
While the price difference could be due to profits collected by dealers that are no longer controlled by the cement manufacturers, CCA president Edwin Salazar said there is an "artificial fluctuation in the prices due to the presence of a cartel."
(October 12, 2003 issue)
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