Mayors told: Set up common weighing scales in markets
08/27/2009 | 02:48 PM
Amid rising pork prices, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) urged local officials Thursday to install common weighing scales in public markets to ensure consumer-protection.
In an interview on dzXL radio on Thursday, DTI undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said consumers already coping with the increasing pork prices should be shielded from further abuses.
“Mananawagan tayo sa ating mga alkalde [na] bantayan ng maiigi ang timbangan. [Ang] Timbangang Bayan nariyan para ma-check ng consumer ang nabibili nila. Kung mataas ang presyo, double whammy na kung sa timbangan madadaya [pa] sila," she said.
(We call on mayors to install common weighing scales in public markets so that the consumers can double check on their purchase. Getting duped on tampered weighing scales is too much, especially prices are already high.)
Maglaya cited reports that pork prices have been climbing in the past weeks and have reached as high P160 per kilo.
She also said that monitoring teams are already scouting markets and have noted gradual increases in the prices of pork, rising by P5 to P10 per kilo every weekend.
Fortunately, she said, “ang demand matumal ngayon so ‘di dapat magkaroon ng problema (Demand for pork is currently weak so we should not have problems)."
She added that the price hike might be due to the low supply of piglets that resulted from the swine flu and ebola virus scares earlier this year. – Melissa de los Santos, GMANews.TV
In an interview on dzXL radio on Thursday, DTI undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said consumers already coping with the increasing pork prices should be shielded from further abuses.
“Mananawagan tayo sa ating mga alkalde [na] bantayan ng maiigi ang timbangan. [Ang] Timbangang Bayan nariyan para ma-check ng consumer ang nabibili nila. Kung mataas ang presyo, double whammy na kung sa timbangan madadaya [pa] sila," she said.
(We call on mayors to install common weighing scales in public markets so that the consumers can double check on their purchase. Getting duped on tampered weighing scales is too much, especially prices are already high.)
Maglaya cited reports that pork prices have been climbing in the past weeks and have reached as high P160 per kilo.
She also said that monitoring teams are already scouting markets and have noted gradual increases in the prices of pork, rising by P5 to P10 per kilo every weekend.
Fortunately, she said, “ang demand matumal ngayon so ‘di dapat magkaroon ng problema (Demand for pork is currently weak so we should not have problems)."
She added that the price hike might be due to the low supply of piglets that resulted from the swine flu and ebola virus scares earlier this year. – Melissa de los Santos, GMANews.TV
