Baguio urges public to report shops jacking up price of bottled water amid diarrhea outbreak

Baguio City, Philippines - Amid the diarrhea outbreak in Baguio City, there have been reports of a price hike in bottled mineral water sold in some establishments in the country’s summer capital.

Inspections were made in various establishments, but the results showed that there were no changes in the price of bottled water.

The inspection was carried out by the Department of Trade and Industry Baguio-Benguet Consumer Protection Division on January 11 and January 12.

The random inspection is still being continued by the agency to protect the welfare of residents affected by the outbreak.

“Our monitoring team went to compare the real-time prices of bottled water against the prices we gathered last week and early this week. According to some store owners, they haven't noticed any unusual increase in the demand for bottled water that may also affect supplies,” Ralph Altiyen of DTI was quoted as saying.

However, even with the result of the monitoring, the agency, along with the city government, is urging the public to report in their offices irregularities in prices of said necessity, as the monitoring team only covered some of the stores and not all of them.

DTI can be contacted through their hotlines, 665-3526 and 09178171743.

To recall, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong declared an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis in Baguio City last week.

This Tuesday, January 16, an official of the Department of Health, through a press forum, declared that the diarrhea outbreak in the city is now ‘officially contained’.