The Price Act

The Price Act protects consumers by stabilizing the prices of basic necessities and prime commodities and by prescribing measures against undue price increases during emergencies and like occasions. It distinguishes two classes of goods: basic necessities (such as rice, corn, bread, fresh and canned fish and other marine products, fresh pork, beef and poultry meat, fresh eggs, fresh and processed milk, fresh vegetables and fruits, locally manufactured instant noodles, coffee, sugar, cooking oil, salt, laundry soap, detergents, firewood, charcoal, candles, and drugs classified as essential) and prime commodities (such as flour, dried and processed fish, onions, garlic, vinegar, patis, soy sauce, toilet soap, fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, poultry, swine and cattle feeds, veterinary products, paper, school supplies, nipa shingles, sawali, cement, clinker, GI sheets, hollow blocks, plywood, plyboard, construction nails, batteries, electrical supplies, light bulbs, and steel wire). The law penalizes illegal acts of price manipulation, principally: hoarding, the undue accumulation of goods beyond normal inventory levels or the unreasonable limitation or refusal to dispose of, sell, or distribute stocks to the general public; profiteering, the sale or offering for sale of any basic necessity or prime commodity at a price grossly in excess of its true worth; and cartel, any combination of or agreement between two or more persons engaged in the production, manufacture, processing, storage, supply, distribution, marketing, sale, or disposition of any basic necessity or prime commodity designed to artificially and unreasonably increase or manipulate its price. There are prima facie presumptions that make these easier to prove in defined circumstances. A key mechanism is automatic price control: prices of basic necessities in an area are automatically frozen at their prevailing prices, or placed under automatic price control, when that area is proclaimed or declared a disaster area or under a state of emergency, or under a state of calamity, among the triggers, generally for a set period. Implementing agencies (DTI, DA, DOH, and others by product) monitor prices and may issue suggested retail prices, and violations carry fines and imprisonment. So the Price Act shields consumers by punishing hoarding, profiteering, and cartels in basic necessities and prime commodities, and by automatically freezing prices in declared emergencies.