by Franklin P.
Gumapon
DIPOLOG CITY, June
11 (PIA) - - To get firsthand information on the issues and concerns
confronting the consumers, the provincial office of the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) in partnership with the Dipolog Consumers’ Watch Group, Inc.
conducted a consumer assembly recently.
Barangay leaders,
Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officers, students, media practitioners, public and
private employees and other stakeholders attended the gathering and aired their
specific concerns on the goods and services sold/provided by certain
institutions and establishments.
A participant
sought the help of the Department of Energy (DOE) to probe local gasoline
dealers for their failure to immediately effect price rollbacks on petroleum
products despite a series of price rollbacks implemented in Manila.
Another consumer
complained about drugstores that refused to give discounts to senior citizens. “When
a senior citizen buys his medicine, the common alibi among pharmacy
owners/attendants is that the drug is out of stock,” he said.
Many have also
complained on unscrupulous rice retailers and traders for selling NFA rice as
commercial rice, giving them low-grade rice when buying and paying for well-milled
rice and other fraudulent practices.
On the part of the
DTI, Consumer Welfare and Protection Division Chief Julius Salaveria assured
the participants that all their issues and concerns would be collated for
presentation during the consumer empowerment forum to be conducted in the third
quarter of this year. (FPG/PIA-Zamboanga del Norte)
