By Robina Asido

Some vendors of a wet market in Tondo are not following the price ceiling for pork and chicken meat set by the government as supplies remain short.

As of Tuesday, there were meat vendors who sell liempo for P 330 to P 350 per kilo, pigue for P 300 per kilo, kasim for P 350 per kilo and chicken for P220 per kilo.

It can be recalled that under Executive Order (EO) No. 124, the price ceiling of P270 is set for pigue and kasim. For liempo it is P 300 and P 160 for chicken meat.

A pork meat vendor in a small market in Tondo said as of Tuesday it is still hard for them to get their usual supply.

"We looked everywhere for the supply. We have to sell, because we have to eat every day," the vendor said.

When asked if they are not afraid being caught by the government authorities for overpricing pork and chicken meat, the vendor said, "What will happen to us if we don't sell? We're not be able to eat. We have to sell even if we will only get very small profit."

The vendor added that they might not be able to sell pork meat if this situation lasts too long.

"Maybe we will not sell pork if we're not able to sustain it. Maybe we will just shift to other products like hotdogs etc..." she said.

She said before the price ceiling was imposed they were able to buy one whole hog a day. Now, they cannot.

"The price is too high. Before we can buy one whole hog, but now we only purchase one piece of pigue so we can still sell," she said.

Executive Order No. 124 went into effect Monday in Metro Manila, where it will run for 60 days. DMS