The Canned Sardines Association of the Philippines (CSAP) said the setting of suggested retail price (SRP) has no legal basis.
In a position paper dated June 13 and submitted to Secretary Ramon Lopez of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the group expressed objection to a draft department administrative order (DAO) that will list or delist some stock keeping units (SKUs) of basic and prime commodities covered by the SRP bulletin system of the DTI.
“ CSAP is declaring its objection to the proposed draft DAO. It may be wiser for us to recommend deferring a final action on this DAO until an effort to establish an enabling law will support the DAO,” said Francisco Buencamino, CSAP executive director.
Buencamino said “there is no enabling law and legal foundation on the SRP as the Price Act merely makes the SRP recommendatory as shown by the use of the qualifier `suggested.’”
According to Buencamino, the Price Act recognizes only two instances when the government can exercise price control under qualified conditions.
“These are price freeze and price ceiling — THERE IS NO SRP, (capitalization not ours),” he said in the position paper.
Since the DTI cannot issue a DAO without an enabling law to support it, Buencamino said “ the Price Act must be amended or updated.”
What the CSAP finds more alarming is that DTI sanctions or threatens to sanction supermarkets for non- observance of SRP which compel manufacturers to adjust prices to the SRP.
He said manufacturers are compelled to accept “losses” mandated by the enforcement.
“Penalizing retailers and manufacturers for non-observance of the SRP through monitoring letters, rebates, and pull-out of products will constitute a prohibited act of price control that is neither price freeze nor price ceiling,” Buencamino said.
