AN economist-lawmaker on Wednesday urged the Department of Agriculture to closely coordinate with the Philippine Competition Commission to investigate the reported existence of an onion cartel in the country.
“I am informing you right now, for your information, the government agency that has jurisdiction over cartel is PCC, you need to report to the PCC, you need to coordinate with them, they have sufficient powers to enforce against any cartel in the entire Philippine economy,” Quimbo told Bureau of Plant Industry Director Glenn Panganiban.
“We had a report that there were found ‘maid in China’ onions in a cold storage last year but the very next day that thousands of bags of onions suddenly disappeared,” said Panganiban.“I can’t say if there is a cartel but it looks like [some groups are] controlling [this problem on onions], I don’t know if that’s what it’s called—[cartel],” he said.