House Speaker Martin Romualdez (center) leads an inspection at Nepa Q-Mart in Quezon City on Aug. 14. To his left is ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo. (Screenshot from Facebook live)

House Speaker Martin Romualdez is taking matters into his own hands when it comes to price monitoring on basic goods.

Romualdez, together with ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, made rounds in not one but two markets in Quezon City on Monday morning, Aug. 14. These were Nepa Q-Mart and Commonwealth market. 

Romualdez and Tulfo specifically checked on prices of onions and rice from several stalls in the two markets. 

In a chance interview at Nepa Q-Mart, the House leader said that such surprise inspections at local markets would continue. 

"Yung ibang mga trader, or yung ibang nagho-hoard, tinatago nila kaya nagkakaroon ng ano, artificial na shortage, kaya ginagawa nilang mas mataas na presyo (Some traders or hoarders hide their supply, creating an artificial shortage and a reason for them to increase prices)?" the Leyte 1st district congressman said. 

It was only last Wednesday, Aug. 9 when Romualdez noted that the prices of onion in the market have begun to "skyrocket from P90 to P180 per kilo recently". 

Between February and May this year, the House Committee on Agriculture and Food--upon the order of the Speaker--carried out an inquiry in aid of legislation on the hoarding of onions. House members have noted that onion prices plummeted during the House probe, after they were pegged as high as over P700 per kilo in December 2023. 

The agriculture panel resumed its probe last week even as Romualdez sought an explanation for the rising onion prices from the Department of Agriculture' (DA) Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI). 

Romualdez has yet to meet with BPI representatives.