THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has penalized four business establishments in Pagadian City for selling Christmas lights without the requisite import commodity clearance (ICC) stickers.
DTI Regional Director Nazrullah Manzur said the four business establishments, which he did not name, paid a total of P95,000 fine for the violation.
Manzur said the violators were caught when they recently conducted a surprise inspection of business establishments selling Christmas lights in the cities of Zamboanga, Dipolog, and Pagadian and in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Manzur said the inspection is aimed to rid the market of substandard Christmas lights that may endanger the lives and properties of consumers.
Manzur said the ICC requirement is embodied in Republic Act (RA) 4019, otherwise known as the Product Standards Law of the Philippines.
He said RA 4019 requires all mandatory products (e.g., household appliances, lamps and lighting products, wires and cables, etc.) to carry the ICC mark for imported products, and the Product Standard (PS) mark for locally made ones.
"These marks are your assurance that the product underwent and passed the product quality testing of the DTI's Bureau of Product Standards (BPS)," he said.
"Over the years, we have campaigned repeatedly to our business establishments to strictly follow the law lest they be sanctioned and we are happy to note that our appeal to the business community had been heeded as shown by the steadily declining number of violations and increasing compliance rate across the whole region," Manzur said.
He added that the enforcement team reported 100 percent compliance to the ICC mark requirement for Christmas lights In Zamboanga and Dipolog, and Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay.