Eye Opener
Ineffective government agencies
Three days after nature unleashed its fury on Panay island, prices of basic commodities soared up to the sky limit,so to say. Groceries, fish, vegetables, rice and other household items rose to over 20 percent. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) which is powered with police and confiscatory powers in accordance with law waited several days yet before they went on air warning businessmen and merchants that the DTI will punish erring price manipulators. Businessmen and merchants who had no electricity then did not hear DTI's warning on radio and TV. When DTI finally acted with on-the-spot inspection of prices in the markets, the heartless merchants and businessmen had already increased their prices four folds than before Frank lashed its deadly tentacles on Western Visayas. Where there summary arrests made by DTI, NFA, and other concerned government agencies? City jails were only jampacked with ordinary criminals and not price manipulators! Are the government agents afraid of merchants and businessmen that there were no arrest made on price saboteurs? Are the merchants and businessmen have the so-called "white paper" on dishonest government agents that they could not do their duty in times of crisis? What measures did the government agencies concerned have in preventing price manipulation?
Too bad, ours is not like the government agencies in Metro Manila where goods and articles of price manipulators were hauled to government trucks and illegal price manipulators were sent to jail before a case will be filed. Wake up government agencies charged with protecting the people. Compensate your services with the fat stipend you are receiving from Mang Andoy or Juan de la Cruz. When will our government protectors safeguard our citizens particularly the flood victims? God knows!