THE House committee on agriculture and food yesterday subpoenaed representatives of Puregold Price Club, Robinsons Supermarket, Gaisano Metro Retail Stores Group Inc., and Power Plant Mall after failing to attend hearings on the price manipulation and hoarding of onion and other agricultural products.
Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, panel chair, said invitations were sent to the representatives of the four supermarkets two weeks ago but “unfortunately, no one came.”
Only the representatives of Super 8 Grocery, SM Savemore, Century City Mall, and Walter Mart attended the hearing.
Rep. Erwin Tulfo (PL, ACT-CIS) said that since the four big grocery stores are not interested in helping the committee get to the bottom of the problem, it would be best to issue them a subpoena.
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., a senior lawmaker agreed, and Tulfo’s manifestation was formally put to a motion which the panel approved.
“The ComSec (Committee secretariat) is hereby directed to draft the subpoena duces tecum, ad testificandum to the following groceries Puregold, Robinsons, Gaisano, and Powerplant Mall,” Enverga said.
Speaker Martin Romualdez called for a congressional probe in December last year when prices of onion surged to over P700 a kilo. The agriculture panel has unmasked key cartel personalities and allied firms.
Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, a senior vice chair of the panel, said some members of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) of the Department of Agriculture were obviously in cahoots with the onion cartel in the country led by trader Lilia Cruz who, according to her, remains the “undisputed Sibuyas Queen.”
According to Quimbo, the cartel which operates through a group of companies was engaged in various activities in the supply chain such as farming, importation, local trading, warehousing, and logistics.
Quimbo has said Cruz operates the biggest onion cartel in the country through Philippine VIEVA (PhilVIEVA) Group of Companies, a corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was established in 2013.
While PhilVIEVA is no longer directly involved in onion trading as it was blacklisted in 2018, Cruz’ trucking business works with companies involved in onion trading, she said.
P1 BUDGET
Tulfo said the DA-BPI should be allocated a budget of only P1 for 2024 for not doing its job of preventing hoarding and price manipulation of onion in the country.
“Napaka-useless nitong BPI na ito. ‘Wag na bigyan ng budget ito (This BPI is very useless.
Let’s not give it a budget anymore). You guys are not doing your job. May monitoring pero sasabihin niyo may guidelines at wala kayong magawa e di useless (You have monitoring but you’ll say you have guidelines and you can’t do anything so you’re useless),” he told the hearing.
Tulfo said that despite the discovery of a large number of onions stored in facilities in the country, the BPI failed to stop the hoarding of onions.
He was reacting to William Mugot of the BPI who explained in the hearing that their hands are tied as they are following their office guidelines: “We are bound to our guidelines. The present guidelines say we can’t compel traders to release their stocks. We are currently amending the regulations.”
Tulfo insisted that the market prices of onions decreased after lawmakers led by the Speaker made several surprise inspections recently in the major public markets and warehouses in the country.
“It took the oversight committee of Congress at hindi po trabaho ng Kongreso na mag-ikot nang mag-ikot para gawin ang trabaho niyo (and it’s not the job of Congress to go around to do your job),” he said.
