General

The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has urged manufacturers and retailers of Noche Buena products to maintain current prices before the upcoming Christmas holidays.

At the Laaging Handa public briefing on Thursday, Ruth Castelo, Deputy Minister of the DTI Consumer Protection Organization, stated that maintaining the prices of these products will relieve Filipinos as they will celebrate Christmas in the pandemic for two consecutive years.

"We call on manufacturers not to increase the prices of Christmas products this year. Or, if they need to increase, only at the absolute minimum level," she said.

Castelo said the agency also persuaded suppliers of these products to maintain their 2019 suggested retail prices (SRP) last year. The person in charge stated that DTI is expected to release the SRP list of Noche Buena products between the end of October and the beginning of November.

At the same time, Castelo said that the new SRP list of basic commodities released on August 29 last year will take effect immediately.

"We have raised prices for 76 of the 216 items in the SRP announcement," she added. "These products include canned food, instant noodles, coffee, milk, condiments and non-food items such as laundry soap."

Castelo said that the price increase ranges from PHP0.20 to PHP1, which is the absolute lowest increase.

However, she said that a corned beef brand increased the price by 2.75 Philippine pesos because the manufacturer had a pending request for a price increase in 2019, but DTI did not approve the price increase until last month.

“We must also understand the manufacturers because they have been asking for this for the past two years. We have received a lot of requests for price increases from 2019, and some pending requests can be traced back to 2018. Due to inflation, we have been They are not allowed to do this," Castelo added.

She assured consumers that the agency monitors the prices of basic and major commodities on a daily basis, and immediately sends out inquiries about reported increases beyond the SRP list.