NBI raids store in Manila for selling overpriced thermal scanners

Boxes of thermal scanners being sold at prices almost eight times higher than their regular price were seized by authorities on Friday following an entrapment operation.

As National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents swooped down on a medical store on Rizal Avenue in Sta. Cruz, Manila, they also saw thousands of face masks, which have become a rare commodity amid the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to a Friday report by Vonne Aquino on Saksi.

For this, several staff of the store and its owner, who was not around during the raid, will face charges for violation of Republic Act 7581 or Price Act for hoarding.

"Lahat ng puwedeng ikaso i-file na. ...Ito ang nagpapahirap sa mga Pilipino. I'm ordering the NBI to crack down on these kinds of syndicates," one of the NBI raiding officers said.

Agents posing as buyers first went to the medical supplies depot to buy thermal scanners. A sign at the glass door said that the store has ran out of stock of thermal scanners and face masks.

Despite the out of stock sign, a salesperson came out with a thermal scanner, which the store was selling for P8,000, or eight times higher than its usual price of P1,000.

"Kasi mataas ang kuha namin, so yun ang binibigay namin na sagad," the sales personnel said.

The raiding team was able to confiscate 1,360 pieces of thermal scanners and 7,680 pieces of face masks.  —LDF, GMA News