Substandard reinforcing bars (rebars) were found being sold in some provinces in Central Luzon, compromising not only manufacturers and producers, but the safety of the greater public as well, the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (PISI) said.
PISI president Roberto Cola had written to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), asking the government to conduct market monitoring and standards enforcement in Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Nueva Ecijia.
The letter, dated March 15, was addressed to Trade Undersecretary Ruth Castelo, who heads DTI’s Consumer Protection Group.
PISI itself has sent its own team to the region in order to monitor the market and to “test buy” from some of the hardware stores in the provinces.
In its report, PISI vice president for technical affairs Joel Ronquillo said the group conducted a two-day market test-buy activity. Test samples were cut from the purchased rebars and submitted to the Metals Industry Research and Development Center for third-party testing.
The report did not note if the substandard products were widely distributed in those provinces. The group did its test on 14 hardware stores across the region, eight of which were found selling the substandard materials.
“Based on the results of the recent market test-buy and even from the series of previous activities done by PISI, it was proven that there were really substandard rebars sold in the market,” Ronquillo said.
To address this, PISI wants DTI to also conduct a nationwide market monitoring and standards enforcement campaign. The group also recommended that cases be filed against the hardware store owners and local manufacturers who sold these substandard products.