Duterte orders price control on food, medicine in time of coronavirus

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered government agencies to ensure compliance with the price control of essential goods and agriculture commodities as the country faces threats of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Duterte, through Memorandum Circular No. 77, directed all agencies and local government units (LGU) to implement the price control issuances of the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Agriculture (DA) on medicines and supplies, and selected agriculture and fishery commodities.

“The existing price control measures being implemented by the DOH and the DA shall be maintained,” the memorandum signed Tuesday stated.

The DOH earlier issued a price freeze on emergency medicines and medical supplies, while the DA imposed suggested retail prices on agricultural and fishery commodities.

Duterte likewise ordered the DOH, DA alongside the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to monitor the prices of basic commodities.

The President has placed the country under a state of calamity due to COVID-19.

He also earlier put the entire Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine where “strict home quarantine shall be implemented in all households; transportation shall be suspended; provision for food and essential services shall be regulated; and heightened presence of uniformed personnel to enforce quarantine procedures will be implemented.”

Health officials have so far recorded 187 cases, including 12 fatalities, related to COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that first emerged in China’s city of Wuhan in Hubei province in late 2019.

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the novel coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2.

The virus causes mild symptoms such as fever and cough for most people but can cause serious illness such as pneumonia for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems.

EDV