Capitol price announcement

Triggers vendors to offer low

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Jan 27 (PIA)—That week when Capitol promised to bring in good quality fish at P180 per kilo when the same fish displayed in the public markets ranged from P220 to P240, fish prices in the market suddenly sagged to P160.

Bohol Fish Buy-Back Coordinator Jerome Salvio Madanguit, speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA said they were first concerned about Capitols offer of P180, fish prices immediately took a dive.

A day before we launched the Fish Buy-Back Program, we announced that there is a load of fish coming, three kinds of fish, and Capitol is selling it at P180. At that day of the announcement, the same fish displayed in the market stalls were priced at P240, Madanguit recalled.

“On the day of the launch, monitors at the Office of the Provincial Agriculture told me that public markets are suddenly lowering their prices at P170 and P160 per kilo,” he narrated to the Kapihan radio listeners.

“So the governor was right, he was able to achieve the goal of bringing the price down by posing in the competition, and he also proved that the price could be much lower, if there were no greedy people controlling the price” the Fish Buy Back Coordinator pointed out.

When the Fish Buy-Back Program forced market vendors to bring down their offer, even much lower than the Capitol’s offer, then the program worked, Madanguit triumphantly declared hinting temporary victory.

Every time we have a fish delivery which we sell at the Old Tagbilaran City Airport at a lower price, the market scene would also go much down. When all our fish are sold-out, the vendors go back to their bloated pricing, he announced.

This came after years upon years of local officials and many disagreeing to the allegations that there is a cartel controlling the fish price here.

The fact that, possibly in order to kill the Capitol competition, some sellers could bring the price lower than the Capitol price, negates these denials, observers of the program also shared their discoveries.

The aim of lowering the fish price and making it justly affordable to Boholanos however is a very complicated issue, Madanguit admitted.

He said Bohol only produces P42% of its fish requirement, highlighting the massive gap between supply and the huge demand, which by economics, drives the prices up.

With this issue at hand, we have to import fish, especially when the 16 fishermen’s organization have not yet been able to fully operate according to the Memorandum of Agreement, Madanguit volunteered the information.

Last November, Bohol Provincial Government represented by Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado signed with the 17 fishermen’s organization and market vendors along with concerned national government agencies, the fish buyback program.

Here, the 16 fishermen’s organizations commit to sell at least P50% of their catch to the provincial government through the fish consolidators in their towns.

But these 16 organizations are currently arranging with the LandBank of the Philippines for the provision of materials and implements to increase their catch.

Practically, we have not fully made the program run with still a few details to fix, Madanguit admits too.

By the MOA, fishermen agree to the provision that they could not receive hard cash for their fish, but the payment would be sent through the group’s GCash account.

This however proved tedious, knowing that there are few if any, of the gcash cash-out stations in their barangays, defeating the purpose of making sure fishermen have money for their daily needs.

In the meantime while the government is still ironing out the issues, a group of people under a non-government organization is partnering with the Buy-Back Program by providing the seed money so that fishermen could get their money right there and then.

This, Madanguit hopes would improve the Buy-back system and gradually bring the fish price down sustainably, by addressing the different aspects of fish value chain.(RAHC/PIA_7/Bohol)

IT WORKS. Bohol Fish Buy-Back Program was able to bring down the fish prices to affordable levels the moment we release fish in the market, said Jerome Salvio Madanguit, who pointed out that despite high prices in the markets, as soon as the Capitola announces its price, the markets would be flooded with cheap fish. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)