LAOAG CITY, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry has advised consumers to be keen in buying goods and on guard against unfair consumer-retailer practice.
The DTI, in accordance to Consumer Act of the Philippines or R.A. 7394, has started distributing “Timbangan ng Bayan” (public weighing scale) to all the municipalities and cities around the province of Ilocos Norte.
“This aims to protect consumers by monitoring the proper weight of their purchased products through our public weighing scales,” Remedios Sasutil, officer-in-charge of Consumer Welfare Divison in DTI-Ilocos Norte, said.
The DTI has allotted two weighing scale in public markets for each town and city.
According to Sasutil, the project was developed on October 2014 but weighing scales were only made available to the provinces sometime in December 2015.
To date, six municipalities have claimed their weighing scales from the DTI.
“We are hoping that those who claimed their weighing scale have already put them in place where it is visible to the people, particularly in their public markets where it was intended to be,” she said.
The weighing scale once it was distributed to all the Local Government Units (LGU) here will be under the supervision and maintenance of the subject for the DTI’s constant monitoring.
“We want to make sure that these weighing scales will work its purpose that is why we coordinated with the LGUs’ market master for its supervision,” Sasutil said.
To jointly implement the undertaking, the DTI with the LGUs will conduct a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing after the distribution.
Before the “Timbangan ng Bayan”, the DTI conducts a regular check up of the retailer’s weighing scale in public markets to make sure that all were calibrated to avoid consumer’s deceit.
“Timbangan ng Bayan” installed in public markets
