Consumer vigilance
They may not be technically proficient but at least one can’t fault the Consumer Rights and Economic Welfare (Crew) group for being vigilant about monitoring the prices of basic and prime commodities.
The group has been criticized by the Mandaue City Market Administrator’s Office and the Department of Energy (DOE) for making reports about the inadequate calibration of weighing scales and gasoline pumps during their surprise inspections of public markets and gasoline stations in Metro Cebu.
According to DOE Regional Director Antonio Labios, only DOE personnel and not Crew are authorized and qualified to inspect the calibration of gasoline pumps.
The Mandaue City Market Administrator’s Office, while a lot more sympathetic, made the same point when it said the Crew should have coordinated with the office in checking weighing scales.
The consumer group, which boasts 500 members in Central Visayas and registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, isn’t a fly-by-night operation.
They have assorted technical measurement equipment donated by party-list Agham at their disposal to check gasoline pumps and weighing scales used by gasoline stations and markets in dispensing their products to consumers.
The DOE may correctly point out that the Crew lacks the technical expertise to inspect gasoline pumps. The same cannot be said of the weighing scales, which can be checked to see if they are defective using the barest, minimal orientation.
The DOE itself admitted that they lack personnel to check all 2,000 gasoline stations in Cebu. And as the Crew correctly pointed out in a radio interview, coordinating with market officials would alert errant stallholders on their presence and allow them to cover their tracks.
Crew is doing a public service by monitoring the markets and gasoline stations to see if they’re not shortchanging consumers, who are already burdened by rising costs of goods.
Any motorist who has traveled the province knows that gasoline stations charge anywhere from P49 to P57 per liter, justifying their price increases to oil deregulation and world market prices—even if gasoline prices are down.
And we’re not even talking about stallholders who use defective scales and bloat meat products with water and chemicals to present them as fresh to the public.
Government agencies should show more appreciation for consumer watch groups as allies.
There’s a reason groups like Crew exist and that’s to make sure that these agencies work according to the mandate given to them by their bosses, the Filipino public.
