JUSTICE SECRETARY Menardo Guevarra on Monday directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate groups or individuals profiteering and hoarding agricultural products, including pork.
Under Department Order No. 029 dated Feb. 8, the NBI through Officer in Charge Eric B. Distor has been “directed and granted authority to conduct an investigation and case build-up” on alleged violations of Republic Act 7581 or the Price Act.
Guevarra cited possible violations of the penal laws against monopolies and combinations in restraint of trade.
He directed Distor to, if evidence warrants, file appropriate charges “specifically on the existence and operation of certain groups allegedly manipulating the supply and price of pork and other basic foodstuff.”
Distor has been directed to submit a report within a month.
Last week, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said President Rodrigo Duterte approved during the 51st Cabinet meeting on Feb. 3 the Department of Agriculture’s recommendation to create a sub-Task Group on Economic Intelligence to go after smugglers, profiteers, and hoarders of agricultural products.
Nograles said the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will lead the subtask force.
Members of the subtask group, he said, include the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Customs, the Philippine Competition Commission, the National Security Council, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
On Feb. 1, Duterte signed an executive order imposing a price cap on select pork and chicken products in Metro Manila to address significant increases in prices of several food items in the country’s metropolis.
The DA, the DTI, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and Metro Manila mayors earlier signed a resolution asking Duterte to impose a price cap of PHP270 per kilogram for pork kasim pigue and PHP300 per kilo for liempo.
They also recommended a price ceiling of PHP160 for whole dressed chicken. (By Benjamin Pulta)
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