Bohol steps up price monitoring

TAGBILARAN CITY – Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto ordered local chief executives in the province to activate their price monitoring councils.

Chatto issued the order on Friday amid the clamor to check the prices of prime commodities and to ensure merchants follow the suggested retail prices.

As this developed, Joe Hibaya, provincial director of the Department of Trade and Industry, said there is no law stating that the governor can impose price control, unless a state of calamity has been declared.

Traders can be sued if they violate other laws such as the price tag law, but imposing price control is out of the question, Hibaya said.

Chatto’s directive also included the Department of Agriculture, Office of the Provincial Agriculture, National Food Authority, Philippine Coconut Authority, Department of Health, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

The governor convened the province’s price monitoring council on Tuesday as commodity prices soared as a result of three successive storms that hit Bohol and to find out the impact of the TRAIN law on basic commodities in the province.

He has created technical working groups to monitor the prices of fish and fuel in the province which are higher than prevailing prices in neighboring provinces.