TACLOBAN CITY – Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Nela Charade Puno solicited help from the law enforcement agency and local chief executives in the region in the implementation of their Consumer Protection Advocacy program.
Puno clarifies that their agency is not policing everyone but only making sure that the law is properly implemented why they are asking support from law enforcers.
“FDA is not a barrier to trade (as) our mission is to ensure the quality and safety of products and at the same time, the consumers are protected the reason why we enforce the law,” Puno said.
FDA is tapping the help of the Philippine National Police (PNP) as the lead agency in enforcing the law and the mayors who approves licenses and permits.
FDA and the PNP is implementing the Task Force D-PUNCH which stands for ‘Destroy Products Unfit for the Consumption of Humans’ which aim to minimize, if not eradicate counterfeit, unregistered, adulterated and misbranded health products in the market that pose danger to life, health and safety of the public.
For the local chief executives, the FDA is reaching out to them to disseminate the forwarded advisories intended for the public.
“I am looking forward for more collaboration and ensured public health and public safety. It is important that we are able to explain everything so that people will know the consequences if they will not follow the law,” Puno said during her speech during a gathering here on May 24.
Puno added that one of the marching orders of President Rodrigo Duterte to the FDA is to confiscate counterfeit products that poses harm to the health and safety of the users and file economic sabotage charges against the makers and producers of the bogus products.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
