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COTANGENT
By Daphne Cardillo
Is the price right?
One thing I observe in my three decades stay here in Tacloban is the
price of commodities which is relatively higher than in most other
places in the Visayas.
There appears to be no government control over the prices of commodities
in the market or even just monitoring of prices by consumer groups, if
there is any. Businessmen
or even just wet market vendors price their goods at whim, then, jack up
the prices during fiestas or other holiday seasons.
When I first came here in the mid 70s, the price of pork was P16/kilo.
Two years later when I went to Dumaguete to finish high school,
the price of pork there was only P12/kilo.
Food in Dumaguete is cheap especially fruits and even those
served in posh restaurants that are of high quality.
Even at present, young people here studying in Dumaguete would
note that eating out in that city is comparably cheaper than here in
Tacloban.
How much more in Cebu where goods are generally cheaper, from food to
household items and hardware materials, to name a few?
I had the chance to really shop things on my own during a one
year stay in the early 80s, aside from my short trips to Cebu and the surrounding metropolis thereafter.
I even remember a friend from Tacloban who saw me in
Cebu sometime in 1981, shopping for blouses she intended to
sell back here. The items
she was buying for P60-P70 each, she said, could be sold for P150 in
Tacloban. Yes, Maria.
It is not that she was overpricing, but, it is simply that
overpriced goods are proliferating in the Tacloban market.
My
brother, who once worked with the Central Bank and was based in
Iloilo, used to come to Tacloban during the
holidays in the late 80s and early 90s.
And every time we’d order food to take out from the few
restaurants here, he’d utter “dollars man presyo dinhi” while looking at
the menu. He was basing his
observation from that in Iloilo
and to think that beautiful city was already more urbanized at that
time. Yes, I found the
place so cosmopolitan in my 1985 visit but goods were reasonably priced
there. Even the P16 hamburger I
was buying in Tacloban then can be bought for only P12 in the
neighboring Roxas City.
Really, even just here in Leyte, prices in Tacloban are very much higher compared to
Ormoc and Maasin. Even the
hardware supplies are cheaper in Sogod, Southern
Leyte compared to Tacloban, with discrepancies so wide in
some items. But maybe one simple
commodity is a good example.
The chrysanthemum flowers that were sold here before at P60/dozen
were sold at only P45/dozen in Baybay.
These were all sourced from Cebu
which at that time could be bought at P25/dozen at the Carbon market and
even a few pesos lower from the middlemen.
These flowers arrived in Leyte
at P35/dozen and sold in Baybay for P45/dozen but at P60/dozen in
Tacloban.
Three years ago, an old neighbor told me that carrots cost P7/kilo at
the harvest area in Davao then sold at an
average price of P15/kilo at the supermarket.
The highest price a kilo of carrots can go there would be at
P30/kilo when supply is low.
But here in my nearby flea market, a stick of carrot costs P7
each, though lately it’s at P10.
On another occasion, a friend from Iligan who was assigned here
was fuming at the price of bananas in Tacloban.
He felt cheated or robbed of his money due to the exorbitant
price of that abundant fruit.
I understood my friend’s reactions later when a piece of melon
was selling here at P30 each, I had the chance to buy the same kind for
only P15 each in Butuan.
I
really don’t know what is it with Tacloban but is the price right in
here? And how much higher
the prices can get once Tacloban becomes a highly urbanized city.
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