- Escalante complained about the vegetables’ high price in the market.
- According to her, farmers from the Northern part of Luzon are dumping vegetables due to low demand.
The singer and stage actress Bituin Escalante ranted about the vegetables’ high price in the market while farmers from the Northern part of Luzon are dumping their harvested crops due to low demand at this time of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
On Escalante’s tweet, she showed the vegetables she bought from the market which included onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and kalamansi (citrus fruits) that cost her 786 pesos.
She even said that the potato would cost her 45 pesos each while in the northern part they were throwing their vegetables because no one would buy it from them and asked if there is anyone in charge of this concern.
P45.50 kada isang patatas.
— bituin escalante (@gobituin) March 28, 2020
News report of GMA News Balitambayan showed a photo of farmers from Tinoc, Ifugao who throws their carrots from their truck due to oversupply.
https://www.facebook.com/gmanews/posts/10158560902066977
In another report by Jonathan Andal of GMA News Saksi, more than a ton of vegetables from Buguias, Benguet had also been thrown because of the low demand in La Trinidad market.
According to La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda, the reasons for vegetables’ high price is because farmers were afraid to deliver their produce in Metro Manila due to COVID -19 and long queues to pass through checkpoints.
In response to this problem, the Department of Agriculture started transporting vegetables directly from Benguet to Metro Manila markets.
