Saturday, October 04, 2008 DTI awaits test result on seized China-made steel bars By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Southern Mindanao still waits for the results of the laboratory test on the samples of uncertified steel bars from China that were intercepted in Bukidnon on September 18.
In an interview Thursday, Marizon Loreto, DTI regional caretaker and assistant regional director, said the laboratory tests from the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) will be released after two weeks from the time the samples were submitted.
The samples were sent to the BPS on September 24.
Loreto also said the importer of the seized steel bars has already been identified by the DTI.
"We have identified him from the very start. We need to do a lot of intelligence work. He's a Manila-based importer," Loreto said. She refused to name the importer.
She further said the steel bars did not really come from the port of Davao. "We have strict monitoring of cargoes at Davao port," she said.
It was learned the seized steel would cost more than P1.2 million.
In an earlier interview, DTI-Southern Mindanao legal officer Lucky Siegfred Balleque said the intercepted steel bars have no Import Commodity Clearance (ICC).
The steel bars were loaded in a truck intercepted by the Malaybalay police on September 18. The DTI provincial office in Malaybalay then informed its regional office about the incident.
The truck was said to be from Davao City.
"We recovered 11 bundles of steel bars. Each bundle has 400 pieces," Balleque said, adding that the confiscated items were to be transported to Cagayan de Oro City.
He said once the steel bars pass the standards set by DTI, they will be sent back to the owner.
"But once it will be proven substandard, those steel bars will be destroyed," Balleque disclosed.
