Philippines: Balanga City vendors declare pork, chicken meat holiday

BALANGA CITY, Bataan – Public market meat vendors here on Friday declared pork and chicken meat holiday, reasoning out their inability to meet the government-imposed price ceiling. Stalls at the meat section were vacant except for one or two selling beef while the fish and vegetable sections were busy. Evelyn Abocado, one of the chicken meat vendors, said they could not follow the price ceiling of PHP160 per kilo on chicken meat and PHP270 per kilo on pork. “Hindi namin kaya ito dahil ang puhunan pa lamang ng baboy ay PHP320 at sa manok ay PHP150 sa kada kilo. Nagbabayad pa kami ng pwesto, permit at iba pang gastusin kaya hindi namin kaya ang ganitong presyuhan (We cannot afford this because the capital for pork alone is already PHP320 and for chicken is PHP150 as per kilo. We also pay rental, permit and other expenses, that’s why we cannot afford it),” she said in an interview. Asked until when they will stop selling meat, Abocado said they will resume if they will be permitted ...