Thursday, October 02, 2008 Cebu City markets ‘free of China milk’
THERE are no China-made milk products in Cebu City’s 10 public markets, and that weighing scales are being monitored, market administrator Raquel Arce assured.
She gave the assurance following an order by City Administrator Francisco Fernandez to have her office check on the markets, including the Pasil fish port, for milk from China.
This came following widespread reports on contaminated milk that resulted in kidney problems in thousands of Chinese babies.
In an interview, Arce said that personnel sent to inspect the markets this week informed her that they found no milk products imported from China.
She, however, said they are just limited to inspecting the stalls and establishments in the public markets and not the stores outside the markets.
She requested the City Health Department to help by inspecting those stores.
Distinction
“Stores inside the public markets have been inspected. Those found outside or across the markets are no longer part of our monitoring,” Arce said.
Also, she said that legitimate stall owners would not dare use defective weighing scales to fleece the public because the penalty if caught is outright revocation of contract.
“That is why aside from the monitoring, they wouldn’t dare use these weighing scales because of the stiff penalty, which is automatic revocation of contract,” she said.
But she admitted that the problem is most common with the ambulant vendors, particularly those who sell goods on carts.
And her office, she said, is only limited to confiscating the weighing scales.
It hurts, though, because an ambulant vendor’s weighing scale is often just being rented so that the vendor ends up paying for it if it is confiscated.
Also, Arce said, each of the city’s 10 markets has the so-called “timbangan ng bayan,” where buyers could countercheck the weight of the goods they purchase if they feel that they got cheated.
Huge billboards announce the presence of the said weighing scales.
Meeting
Arce will gather today her market supervisors to remind them of City Councilor Edgardo Labella’s warning on weighing scales.
With Christmas a few months away, Labella warned against vendors using defective weighing scales, and those selling meat and poultry products who are without National Meat Inspection Certificates. (RHM)
