Friday, February 29, 2008 Monitoring of electronics shops intensified By Allen V. Estabillo Of Sun.Star General Santos
KORONADAL CITY -- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has intensified its monitoring of repair shops and service centers of various electronic gadgets and other household items in South Cotabato, to protect local consumers against unscrupulous practices.
Flora Gabunales, DTI provincial director, said they renewed their monitoring and enforcement activities on different service establishments by focusing on their accreditation as well as conducting evaluation of their competence and qualification.
A group of consumers here earlier asked the local government and DTI to check on the mushrooming repair shops and service centers in the province.
Concepcion Oreta, chair of the city's consumer council, said some of their members complained that several repair centers in the city have the accreditation from DTI as required for their operations.
"There are even technicians that simply set up a shop inside a retail establishment and offer their services to the public. When the owners of these retail establishments were asked about the existence of a certain shop within their premises, they just claim that they do not supervise the activity of these technicians," he said.
Gabunales said the Accreditation Law has specifically mandated the DTI to accredit all service and repair enterprises in the country.
"Accreditation is a legal recognition that provides for a service or repair firms and for technical personnel therein to have complied with the requirements of the law and fulfilled the basic requirements of the industry for their operation and are therefore reliable and competent to practice the trade," she said.
Gabunales said the wisdom of the accreditation law is mainly to protect the consumers.
"It is also for business protection. This aims to protect reliable and competent service and repair enterprises against such malpractice which undermine their good name and established reputation," she said.
Gabunales said accreditation would also promote and develop service and repair enterprises as well as hasten technological development and encourage professionalism to assure the public of reliable, ethical, and competent services.
She said the shops covered by the decree are "all enterprises and technical personnel employed who are engaged in the service and repair of motor vehicles, heavy equipment, engines and engineering works, electronics and electrical appliances, office machines and data processing equipment, computers, medical and dental equipment, and other industrial, electromechanical, chemical and gaseous equipments."
Gabunales said the owners of the repair shops or service centers are specifically required to secure accreditation first from DTI before they could operate.
"We will not hesitate to impose penalties on violators of this law. Not even the owners of the establishments who accommodate technicians offering their services without the required accreditation could escape liability," she added.
