DA seeks legal review of profiteering

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking to revise the definition of profiteering in existing laws in order to provide it with the power to curtail unscrupulous wholesalers and retailers of commodities in the market.

- JASPER EMMANUEL ARCALAS

Agriculture officials said the department's hands had been tied in addressing profiteering in the market, forcing it to be more creative in intervening and resolving the matter.

DA Undersecretary Asis Perez, in an earlier hearing conducted by the House of Representatives, said the DA cannot just act on profiteering since its legal definition is quite different from its economic concept.

Perez pointed out that for a situation to be considered profiteering, the price of the commodity must increase by 10 percent from its previous month's average price in line with the definition stipulated under Republic Act 7581 or the Price Act. This, Perez emphasized, is quite different to what is happening to rice prices in the market.

"We are not talking about rice prices increasing but we are talking about prices not going down as expected," he told the House committee.

"The law is worded differently so that we cannot just act on it," he added.