By Atty. Egay Uy

AT the same time that I took the helm of the RCB a few years back, Mayor Oscar S. Moreno also designated me as his co-chairman of the Price Act-mandated City Price Coordinating Council. This council keeps watching of price and supply manipulation for the protection of end-users or consumers.

The CPCC’s strong partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry has made protecting the interest of consumers easier and more concrete. Easier because we were able to cause the passage of a city ordinance requiring barangays to designate their respective Consumer Welfare Officers. Consumer concerns are then addressed and settled right in the backyard of the barangay.

Today, the CPCC, unhampered by the onset of the pandemic, continues to perform its role to address reports of shortage of medical supplies, and violations against suggested retail prices of other basic necessities and prime commodities.

Of late, however, the DOH took over what the CPCC and the DTI have started, i.e., look into the reported shortage of medical oxygen. Why the DOH relies so much on the DTI still puzzles me considering that under the Price Act (RA 7185), the DOH is the implementing agency when it comes to medical supplies. And rightly so.

The CDO CPCC met with medical oxygen suppliers on August 16 because of reported shortages and possible price hikes. We (CDO CPCC, DTI, DOH, FDA) were assured then by manufacturers that their production was sufficient to meet the demand, at that time, of Cagayan de Oro.

The CDO CPCC did not conduct price checks anymore at the retail side because we learned that the manufacturers themselves undertook the refilling of medical oxygen cylinders. These did not pass through retailers or middlemen. And their prices were stabilized at between P650 and P950 per 50-pound cylinder.

Then as reports on the scarcity of supply in the region again became a matter of concern, the DOH called a meeting of medical oxygen manufacturers on September 10. I was able to listen to this meeting and I learned that indeed there was a brewing problem on supply. Not much on prices.

Then I learned much later that the DOH was again initiating a meeting with the DTI and the oxygen manufacturers. I would have wanted to sit in but I was not invited by the DOH. I would have represented the City Price Coordinating Council.

It’s actually alright with me as long as the DOH will follow this through until the matter is finally solved. I don’t want to add injuries to what the DOH is facing amidst allegations of big-time corruption now but I could only wish the DOH does these things:

One. Seriously review its suggested retail prices (SRP) of medical supplies. What it currently does is mandate a price range instead of mandating a maximum price for every medical supply and medicine. My impression is that it merely gets the prevailing prices of those supplies and inputs them into the supposed SRP. This will not serve the interest of the users at all. Instead, the SRP appears to benefit the suppliers. I can only surmise why.

The DOH could borrow the wisdom and strategy of the DTI in its SRP issuances. Have an issuance that will ensure the protection of the end-users, not the interest of the suppliers.

Two. The DOH must ensure the availability of critical medical supplies especially at this time of surging Covid19 positive cases in the city, the region, and even in the country. Or has the DOH been busy monitoring the mandated unnecessary use of face shields by everybody?

At the start of the surging cases, the DOH should have projected the increased demand for medical oxygen and instituted measures to prevent any shortage. I will leave that to the bright DOH guys how to do it but any layman will appreciate an anti-hoarding and anti-panic buying measure to prevent an artificial shortage of the commodity.

Three. Seriously monitor the compliance by suppliers of the single-price SRP and enforce the law. Violators should be required to explain why there were violations and if they fail to satisfactorily justify violations, throw the book at them.

When I complained to the DOH about the prohibitive prices of critical medicine in hospitals in early 2020 after my wife Juliet passed on, the regional DOH merely replied that suppliers are required to post their prices on a web page without even saying that indeed somebody at the DOH is monitoring compliance.

This will be a very long material but I won’t bore readers with that. I will just pose the question: What’s with the DOH?

Can you just DOH it?