Puno
Beware: you might mistake her for a fragile beauty consultant, but the new Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) director general is actually a tough, no-nonsense taekwondo brown-belter who is determined to do her job and do it well.
Barely a year at the helm of the FDA, Nela Charade Puno has already been turning heads.
Yes, her simple but elegant sartorial style may have something to do with it, but there’s more to her than just her youthful aura.
What calls attention to the entrepreneur-turned-public servant is her keen focus on her mission at the FDA.
Puno is bent on achieving her goals.
Puno is the youngest to be named FDA Director General.
She is also the first licensed pharmacist to occupy the post of an agency that oversees industries and regulates products that touch the lives of every Filipino.
Most, if not all, of her predecessors were medical practitioners. That a pharmacist now heads the FDA is a development that has been welcomed by the private sector.
Wrote the Philippine Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry (PCPI): “We note that the current FDA Administration under Director General Nela Charade Puno has been leading the way in instituting reforms that will benefit the public as well as the industry”.
Just weeks after her appointment, the magna cum laude graduate of Pharmacy from the University of Santo Tomas immediately rolled up her sleeves and worked on reforms.
Her priority was getting the local market rid of fake, counterfeit and unregistered cosmetic products.
After all, these products prey on Filipinos who spend their hard-earned money in the hope that such products would help them feel and look better.
In this campaign, Puno refused to adopt an excuse which had been used by the FDA in the past to explain the apparent failure to curb the proliferation of these products: Lack of manpower needed to conduct raids and law enforcement operations against the syndicates and merchants behind the scam.
Puno surprised the industry by convincing the Philippine National Police (PNP) to sign a pact with the FDA. Under the pact, PNP Chief Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa will lend the needed manpower and assistance to Puno’s law enforcement operations.
Already, more than one hundred PNP personnel have undergone the necessary training.
Dela Rosa also made sure the partnership with Puno has the PNP organization’s non-nonsense support by fielding several star-rank police officers for this particular operation.
It was not difficult for Puno to obtain the PNP’s help. After all, she has a longstanding friendship with the PNP. She relates: “My father passed away when I was just 14 years old. Having lost my father, I felt I needed to be able to protect myself so I availed myself of the free taekwondo training from the PNP”.
“At one point, my dream was to become a police officer,” Puno added.
Her mother’s objection may have dampened the ambition. What her mother wanted most was for her to have a good Catholic education.
Puno initially wanted to attend the Ateneo de Manila University, but she said she was intimidated by the fact that “everybody had a car and I was too poor to have one.”
She opted instead to go to UST. To support herself during her college years, she worked part-time in several fast food outfits, serving hamburgers and fried chicken when she was not cleaning tables.
Puno also discovered her entrepreneurial inclinations during her college years.
“I partnered with the buko vendor who sold his drinks every day in front of our UST dorm,” Puno said. The partnership involved her supplying him every day with foot-long hotdogs. He sold the items for her and they split the profit.
“The experience taught me not only the principles of entrepreneurship but the value of hard work and of having a clear vision of the future,” Puno said.
“It also gave me a first-hand view of the struggle of the ordinary Filipino— how our underprivileged countrymen would work hard, sacrifice and pay the price for their dreams,” she added.
“This is why I am dedicating my years of public service to making sure that the food, cosmetics, medicines and other household and wellness products they buy with their hard-earned money have been tested and certified and proven to be safe, quality and effective,” she explained.
A big challenge
Puno has a major task ahead of her.
Unlike other regulatory agencies which oversee just one industry, Puno’s office regulates several big ones. In addition to the pharmaceutical and food sectors, she oversees the cosmetics industry, and the sectors which manufacture and distribute medical supplies and equipment, radiation-emitting devices, hazardous substances used in households, pesticides, children’s toys and all other products that may affect people’s health.
The job is not going to be easy.
The FDA, she explains, is grossly undermanned and lacks the material and financial resources needed for the task.
“But I don’t intend to let the scarcity of resources deter me from achieving my public service goals,” she said. “I am working for additional resources, but in the meantime, I am focused on making the organization more efficient,” she added.
As soon as she assumed office late last year, Puno started a program to erase the backlog in the approval of applications for product licenses and to ensure that the processing of new applications are done within 72 hours. The goal is “operations excellence.” Puno said that if the FDA processes were done faster, more product manufacturers and sellers would go for testing and licensing.
“The ultimate beneficiary would still be the ordinary consumers since most of the options in the market would have been tested for safety, quality and effectiveness,” she said.
The efforts of Puno’s management team earned early dividends.
Just last month, the FDA passed with flying colors the recent surveillance and follow-up audit.
This means the FDA has conformed with the strict standards of ISO:9001 given by the ISO accrediting body TUV Rheinland.
“My team is not resting on its laurels though,” Puno said. “Our efforts are now directed toward transforming the organization into so-called centers of excellence,” she added.
According to Puno, the FDA is gearing up for compliance with higher ISO standards for the next round of audit next year. Her plan is to obtain an ISO 14001 accreditation for FDA which is the standard of excellence for environmental management systems.
Regaining public trust
Puno says her role is to be “an instrument for helping regain the people’s trust in their government”.
“Part of my public service goal is for our countrymen to have the confidence that the government is protecting them from the serious risks posed by fake, counterfeit and untested food, medical, cosmetics and household products,” she explained.
“They should be able to consume and use these products with the knowledge that the government—through the FDA—has made sure they are safe, are of high quality, and will deliver the benefits promised them and which they paid for,” she added.
She is up against big enemies.
After all, selling fake and counterfeit food, medical and household products is a multimillion-peso business in the country.
“We are not intimidated by these elements,” Puno said. “We may not have all the resources to fight them, but we have the will and we have our allies,” she explained.
Puno may be young, but she’s both battle-tested and battle-ready. —CONTRIBUTED