MANILA -- Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has ordered the Bureau of Plant Industry to go around various cold storage facilities to check if they are keeping freshly harvested onions.

He said this is a precautionary measure against hoarding of onions.

"[Sinabihan kong] inspeksyunin kung meron bang new harvest na tinatago at hindi binebenta, kasi kung merong ganun, mali yon," Tiu Laurel told reporters on Monday.

(I told them to investigate if there are some freshly-harvested onions being kept in cold storage facilities because it should not be happening.)

"Kung magtatago ka ng onion is towards the middle or end of the harvest season eh, not sa umpisa eh. Doon pa lang, makikita natin kung merong manipulasyon," he added.

(You should only keep onions in cold storage at the middle or the end of the harvest season, not during the start. We could see manipulation there.)

Tiu Laurel said he is awaiting reports because it's not easy to inspect cold storage facilities, which are mostly outside Manila. He said inspections may take 4-7 days before concerned personnel could come up with reports.

This, after agricultural group SINAG proposed that onions must have a maximum SRP too "is worth considering, and that there is nothing wrong with it."

However, Tiu Laurel noted that the prevailing price of onions has remained stable at P170/kilo.

"Kung sakaling tumaas pa, titirahin din natin ng ganon pero as of the moment, harvest is coming soon. Sakaling mag MSRP sa onion, that would be limited, two weeks lang yan," he said.

(In case onion prices spike further, we will act similarly but harvest is coming soon. If we implement MSRP on onion, that would be limited to only two weeks.)