Reactivate local Price Coordinating Councils, ACCESS urges officials

The Alliance of Concerned Consumers in Electricity and Social Services (ACCESS), through its President Wennie Sancho, is urging the provincial and local government officials to reactivate the Price Monitoring Councils under RA 10623.

The republic act mandates the protection to consumers by stabilizing the prices of basic necessities and prime commodities and prescribing measures against undue price increases during emergency situation.

Sancho, in a statement urged the “need for immediate action. T27he city and provincial government officials must convene in an emergency meeting with the stakeholders to discuss price stabilization amids the unabated increases in the prices of basic goods and services, exacerbated by the sudden increases in the prices of petroleum products. There should be a Task Force to monitor prices, supply chains and energy market. As part of its public awareness campaign, the government should educate the citizens about its initiative and price stabilization efforts to protect the welfare of the people”

“We are facing an economic downturn or crises that affects the economic survival of the population. The continued deterioration of the workers’ purchasing power due to inflation had greatly reduced the real value of the peso. If the purchasing power of the workers would collapse, we will be facing an economic depression that would wreak havoc on the lives of the people, particularly the marginalized sector,” the ACCESS head added.

ACCESS strongly suggests that concrete measures in the form of economic relief should be implemented by the government. Price control and regulation are necessary by establishing price ceiling for essential commodities to prevent profiteering, he also said.*