House panel probing onion prices cites cold storage firm officials for contempt

The House agriculture and food panel on Tuesday cited two officials of a cold storage company in contempt over allegedly refusing to turn over pertinent documents involving their clients during the congressional probe into the spike in onion prices during the last quarter of 2022.

Super 5 officials George Ong and Michael King Ang were cited in contempt, an action that puts them in detention for 10 days the House of Representatives, with the solons saying the data they submitted to the committee lacked details.

Ong and Ang tried to appeal their fate by telling the committee they will comply with its committee’s request for a detailed list of their clients and inventory and submit it at the next public hearing, to no avail.

Quezon Representative Jay-jay Suarez said that the other cold storage facilities at the hearing were able to submit the documents that the committee asked from them.

“Hindi raw nila alam ang nangyayari sa loob ng cold storage nila. And now we asked for data, look at that: [these documents state] in the past five years, they operated the largest cold storage, with the most sacks [of agricultural products stored]. Do you think this is sufficient?” he said.

“This is insulting. Tapos sasabihin, hindi nila alam ang kinikita nila. Baka hindi lang nila makuwenta ang kinikita nila sa laki.  Mr. Chair, there is enough basis for us to find them worthy to be cited in contempt,” Suarez added.

Suarez’s motion to cite the Super 5 officials in contempt gathered 20 votes, prompting House agriculture and food panel chairperson Mark Enverga of Quezon to instruct the House’s Sergeant at Arms to escort Ong and Ang to their detention.

House appropriations panel senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo noted that cold storage facilities, which are limited in number, can control the supply of local and imported onions.

“Kung ang kontroladong local production at importation ay nakalagak sa kakaunting storage facilities, madali nang  ma-execute ang pag-iimbak, at unti-unting pag labas sa merkado, at ang pagkakaroon ng artipisyal na pagtaas ng presyo ng sibuyas. This is a clear case of hoarding and price manipulation,” Quimbo said.

(If local production and importation are left to storage facilities, it would be easy to hold off release, release them in trickles to the market, en route to an artificial increase in onion prices.) — BM, GMA Integrated News