(Eagle News) — The Quezon City government said it will waive the public market rental fees of meat retailers affected by the price cap.
Mayor Joy Belmonte made the announcement after inspecting pork prices at the Commonwealth market and Mega Q mart on Monday.
“We have decided to waive their rental fees to help them cope with the current crisis, and we enjoin our private markets to do the same,” Belmonte said.
Belmonte, who was accompanied by representatives of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, also instructed the Market Development and Administration Department to coordinate with market vendors to discuss other forms of assistance they could receive while waiting for subsidized supply of pork from the Department of Agriculture.
According to MDAD head Procopio Lipana, members of his team were making the rounds in markets everyday to ensure the price cap specified in President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 124 was followed.
Under the EO, the price ceiling of kasim/pigue is at ₱270 per kilo, liempo’s at ₱300 per kilo and dressed chicken at ₱160 per kilo for 60 days.
The President gave the order acting on the recommendation of the DA, amid the spike in prices of select pork and chicken products due to supply shortage caused by the outbreak of the African Swine flu.
“We are making sure that meat retailers do not take advantage of our consumers and we will intensify our monitoring and enforcement in order to protect our consumers’ rights,” Belmonte said.