Wednesday, October 01, 2008 No need for taskforce on tainted milk: Jaraula By Cong B. Corrales
MAYOR Constantino Jaraula sees no need to create a taskforce dedicated to purge local stores of suspected melamine-contaminated dairy products.
Police also said they received no order to confiscate China-made products that are being recalled or banned by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) as their counterparts in Manila have been doing as early as last week.
"No, we have no orders to confiscate any product associated with melamine," said police personnel who answered this paper's telephoned query at the Cagayan de Oro Police Office (Cocpo) headquarters Tuesday.
"We will only act if we are duly deputized by any local or national agency, but there is no such request at the moment," the police officer, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, added. Attempts to contact Acting City Police Director Isagani Genabe Tuesday failed.
In an e-mailed statement to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro, Jaraula explained that the City Price Coordinating Council (CPCC)-recently renamed as the Cagayan de Oro Local Consumer Protection Council-would be enough to monitor and enforce BFAD's advisories on China's tainted dairy products.
At this stage, the mayor said there was "no cogent need to create a task force" and that ""what we need is close coordination and strict monitoring for the welfare of the public."
Other local government units, however, are not taking chances.
In Davao City Monday, Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte gave local traders 24 hours to pull out all China milk products sold in the city.
Underlining the gravity of the matter, Duterte even warned that businessmen who failed to comply would be forced to eat their products-in public.
"Dili na mo dapat maghulat sa listahan sa BFAD (Businessmen should not wait for the final list from the Bureau of Food and Drugs). It's public health that's at stake here," the Davao City mayor was quoted by Sun.Star Davao as saying.
Earlier, a monitoring team from the Regulatory and Licensing Enforcement Division (RLED) of the Department of Health's (DOH) in Region 10 reported that the city was free from the dairy products of beleaguered Sanlu Group of China-the maker of the melamine-contaminated milk products.
It turned out, however, that DOH-10 team did not include in its inspections another batch of dairy products ordered recalled and banned by the BFAD last September 22.
At the City Council session Monday, Dr. Dante Pajo presented several banned products from China that he bought from the different local stores.(With AP)
