THE Department of Justice (DoJ) is eyeing at least six or seven personalities behind the cartel that hoards, controls, and manipulates the price of onions and other agricultural products.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla disclosed on Thursday that these personalities were the same names that cropped up during a Senate investigation related to the spiraling cost of onions, whose price reached P700 per kilo in December last year.
“There are six or seven names that come out wherever we look at the whole picture. We have a very good idea about this. We just need to catch them on the act,” added Remulla, who went back to work on Wednesday after a 10-day wellness leave to undergo a bypass procedure.
In fact, he added, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has conducted a test buy in Cebu, and “we were able to locate who is hoarding the supply [of onions] in Cebu.”
Remulla said that they would prosecute the personalities behind the onion cartel for economic sabotage.
He added that hoarding of onions is being done in connivance with storage facilities, warehouses, and middlemen. (ai/mnm)
