CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), together with Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Agriculture (DA)-Central Luzon, Municipal Agriculture Office, Philippine National Police on Tuesday started the conduct of monitoring and profiling of rice retailers in Cabangan town, Zambales province.
The monitoring and profiling is in line with Executive Order No. 39 of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. which sets a price ceiling of P41 per kilo for regular-milled rice and P45 per kilo for well-milled rice.
The government agencies asked rice retailers about their purchase prices and other information to determine the losses that they would incur due to the ceiling cap.
"Some rice retailers have expressed concern about the implementation of the rice price ceiling, saying that they suffer losses. Thus, we have started compiling a list of affected rice retailers and assessing the potential losses caused by the price cap," the DTI said.
The data that will be gathered will serve as guidelines to determine measures on how to ease the effect of the price cap on the rice retailers, plus help in disseminating information on the implementation of the rice price ceiling will also be conducted to retailers.
The DILG also asked rice retailers and dealers to comply with the rice price cap, noting it is only "temporary," but will
help ease consumers' burden, as to how long the price ceiling will be in effect.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development said that small rice retailers are bound to receive a maximum subsidy of P15,000 as early as next week to cover for the losses they will incur due to the price cap.
Qualified rice retailers would be based on the list from the monitoring and profiling of the DTI and DA.