After being bypassed twice by the Commission on Appointments last year, Alfredo Pascual finally received the approval of the powerful constitutional body for his appointment as secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry on Wednesday.
During the deliberations on his appointment, Pascual vowed to arrest the soaring prices of basic commodities, particularly agricultural products.
“We will connect a farm in a province to an institutional buyer. The transaction between them will be direct, which will cut out middlemen,” he said.
Middlemen, who add their own margin to the cost of goods they buy from farmers, are said to be one of the reasons behind the country’s high prices of agricultural products.
During the previous hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, onion farmers from San Jose, Occidental Mindoro revealed that traders bought their produced onions at P8 to P5 per kilo. However, their products were sold in Metro Manila for as high as P600 per kilo.
Likewise, Pascual said the DTI is in coordinating with the Department of Communication and Technology to create digital technology to monitor agricultural harvest flow.
He issued the remarks after members of the CA’s panel on Trade and Industry asked him about the measures his department has implemented to arrest the soaring prices of agricultural products.
The Trade chief likewise asserted that the government is strengthening food security in the country to minimize the effects of the looming global recession.
Pascual stressed that food security concerns many factors, including a boost in farm production.
Senator Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate panel on agriculture, asked Pascual why traders who abused farmers and consumers are still in their business despite being identified for their illegal practices.
“Are they capable of doing something like that… I cannot imagine that it can be done without the tolerance of the government,” Villar said.
In response, Pascual said the DTI is now coordinating with the Philippine Competition Commission to stop such illegal activities.