The Department of Trade and Industry will start distributing P15,000 assistance to each compliant retailer in Bacolod City affected by the price cap on rice, on Wednesday, September 13, the head of the Department of Trade Industry (DTI) in the province said Monday.
Bacolod City is a priority and the distribution to retailers in other areas in Negros Occidental will follow, Lynna Joy Cardinal, Negros Occidental DTI provincial director, said during a press conference called by Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez at the Bacolod City Government Center on Monday.
She could not give the exact number of recipients as they were determining who are complaint with the requirements, Cardinal said.
The retailers should be registered with business permits, and must be selling at the price ceiling of P41 a kilo for regular milled rice and P45 for well-milled rice to qualify as recipients of the P15,000 assistance, she said.
There are 1,241 registered rice retailers in Negros Occidental, she said.
Cardinal said their survey provincewide last week showed that well-milled rice was selling at P45 to P63 a kilo and regular rice P42 to P55 a kilo.
But it has been observed that the rice prices are going down, Cardinal said, adding that the DTI is conducting another provincewide survey this week to determine compliance.
The DTI does not have the authority to compel retailers who violate the price cap to comply, she said. All complaints against violators of the price cap are being endorsed to the Department of Agriculture for action since rice is an agricultural product under its jurisdiction, she added.
The price of rice in Bacolod City has been dropping following the price cap ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos in Executive Order 39, Benitez said.
“My understanding is local supply is gradually coming in, which is driving the price down. These are local supplies that will soon arrive,” he said.
Benitez also said the city government also contacted dealers that can supply sellers with inexpensive rice and starting last week rice at P45 a kilo was available in city markets.
“It was an initiative of the city to coordinate with rice dealers to make sure we can give (comsumers rice) at the price ceiling stipulated in the EO. We were able to find rice stocks enough to be sold within the price ceiling,” the mayor said.
“We requested the vendors not to mark up too much. We will try to look for as much cheap but quality rice,” he added.*