The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) noted stable prices in La Castellana town after DTI imposed a price freeze on the area affected by the Mt. Kanlaon eruption.

DTI provincial director Lynna Joy B. Cardinal said the price freeze will last for 60 days and will end on August 3 of this year.

“The situation in La Castellana is normal. There is no panic buying and, so far, there are no complaints on overpricing of basic goods,” Cardinal said.

According to DTI, the baseline for the price freeze of food items is based on the previous month’s prevailing prices before the announcement of the state of calamity.

The commodities on DTI’s watch list include rice, sugar, meat noodles, beef, pork, processed milk, bread, candles, pandesal, loaf bread, salt, bottled water, and candles.

Based on DTI’s daily monitoring, groceries in the town have two months of merchandise buffer stock as supplies arrive weekly to replenish sold items.

Commodities bought in bulk are not taken from the store shelves but are sourced from the outside to maintain the volume of items that should be readily available for consumers, she explained.

In the event a violation of the price freeze occurs, Cardinal said this will go through due process of investigations and inquiries.

“As far as we have observed, the business community in La Castellana is cooperative on this issue,” she said.

According to Cardinal, they received feedback from sellers that sales had dropped since government food packs and other supplies arrived in the town for those affected by the incident.

The municipality of La Castellana lies at the foot of the Kanlaon Volcano and is more than 60 kilometers from the province’s capital, Bacolod City.

“We assure the public that we will continue to monitor prices daily to ensure they are within the mandated levels,” Cardinal said. (PIA-6 Negros Occidental)