The Department of Trade and Industry has ordered a price freeze within Albay province for Basic Necessities and Prime Commodities (BNPCs) after the local government declared a state of calamity amid Mayon Volcano’s ongoing unrest.
“Through DTI’s provincial office in Albay, I have ordered a price freeze for BNPCs today,” Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said Friday.
“Business establishments are directed to comply with this, otherwise, we will impose necessary penalties. We want to ensure that our affected kababayans in Albay will have access to affordable and reasonably-priced commodities, especially during disasters like this,” he added.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Friday said it recorded Mayon’s largest pyroclastic density current (PDC) registered since June 8.In an advisory, Phivolcs said the PDC occurred at 11:18 p.m. on Thursday and was the largest seen since last week.
It was one of the 13 pyroclastic flows recorded from Thursday to Friday, higher than the three PDCs recorded from Wednesday to Thursday.
The volcano’s ongoing unrest has driven more than 20,000 to leave their residences, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council revealed.
During an interview with ANC, NDRRMC spokesperson Raffy Alejandro said managing evacuation centers might pose a problem as the number of evacuees continues to balloon.”
As long as nobody is inside the permanent danger zone, we don’t expect any casualty, but the challenge really is how to maintain or manage the evacuation centers because this is where we might have problems,” said Alejandro.
“We have to prevent outbreaks of diseases, problems in terms of health and sanitation,” he added.
Under the Price Act (RA7581), as amended by RA 10623, prices of basic necessities (BN) are automatically frozen at their prevailing prices for 60 days from declaration unless sooner lifted by the President. (See full story online at manilastandard.net)
“Upon the issuance of the Provincial Resolution No.0607-2023, we already issued a Memorandum Circular reminding all wet markets, supermarkets, groceries, bakeries, hardware, and water refilling stations to comply with the Price Freeze on basic necessities,” DTI-Albay Officer-in-Charge Noel P. Bunao said.
DTI provincial monitoring teams are continuously monitoring the pricesand availability of basic goods such as canned fish, locally manufactured instant noodles, bottled water, bread, processed milk,coffee, candles, laundry soap, detergent, and salt in supermarkets, groceries, and wet markets.”
We have enough supply of basic goods in the affected areas and we are in constant coordination with the manufacturers of basic necessities to ensure adequacy of supply in Albay,” the department said.
“We encourage the public to report to the DTI those who are selling basic goods beyond the prevailing price,” said DTI Consumer Protection Group Undersecretary Ruth B. Castelo.
Meanwhile, consumers are enjoined to report retailers, distributors, and manufacturers that sell basic necessities above their prevailing prices via One-DTI (1-384) Hotline or email, [email protected].“In the past 24-hour period, very slow effusion of lava from the summit crater of Mayon Volcano continued to feed lava flows andcollapse debris on the Mi-isi (south) and Bonga (southeastern)gullies,” Phivolcs said.
“Traces of ashfall dispersed from the PDCs were reported in SitioBuga, Barangay Nabonton, City of Ligao and Purok 7, Barangay San Francisco, Municipality of Guinobatan,” it added.At least 307 rockfall events and four volcanic earthquakes were also recorded in the same period.
Phivolcs also recorded steam-laden plumesthat rose 750 meters and an average sulfur dioxide emission of 826tons.Previously, the Department of Health said that respiratory problemsand diarrhea cases have been reported among the evacuees.
NDRRMC shared that the majority of displaced residents are staying in 27 evacuation centers across Albay province.
Alejandro added that if Mayon’s Alert Level Status will be escalated to Alert Level 4, an additional one or two kilometers will be added to the extended danger zone which will put another batch of evacuees consisting of 10,000 to 15,000 individuals.
Mayon remained under Alert Level 3 due to increased unrest on volcanic activities.