Despite existing price control laws, there is no way the government can control prices of basic commodities today.

City councilor Bebiano Inting, who chairs the committee on Justice and Human Rights, lamented that there is something wrong in the government control of prices here noting that in nearby Cebu, prices of daily commodities like fish, are much cheaper compared to the prices prevailing in the city.

Inting added, that he knows the market prices, being a single parent, going out and buying the things needed for his family, personally.

In the radio, morning updates of market prices, like burot-burot or tulingan say it is P80 per/kilo but when you go to the market, it carries a price of more than P100 pesos.

“There is something wrong in this,” Inting said during last Friday’s session where Department of Trade and Industry and Agriculture officials were invited.

Jose Hibaya, DTI-Bohol operations monitoring chief said, there is no way the government can control market prices. There are several factors, like typhoons, scarcity of supply and other events beyond human control that affects the prevailing markets prices of goods, including agriculture products.

Provincial agriculturist Liza Quirog, however, presented the lighter side of the escalating prices today, saying despite the situation, Bohol still has an ample supply of the staple rice, agricultural products and fish.

DTI said, under the New Price Act (R.A. 7581), although the government strives to regulate the market prices of basic commodities, as state policy, the government also sets rules as “not to deny legitimate business fair return of their investments.”

The department suggested the strengthening of the mandated Local Price Coordinating Council (LPCC) wherein cities, municipalities can come up with their suggested retail prices (SRP) based on the supply and demand in their localities.

This new approach is called Reference Scheme which is expected to actually monitor the movement of goods and the factors that may affect their bulk and retail prices when reaching the market.