THE city market monitoring team headed by Enrique Alawi, market superintendent, warned fraudulent vendors of stiff sanctions should they fail to stop using defective and unsealed weighing scales to sell their consumable items.
Monday, Dec. 14, Alawi’s team conducted their surprise random inspection at the meat and rice sections inside the Agora and confiscated a total of 16 tampered and unlicensed weighing scales.
Alawi informed this paper that the scales were called “tampered” because of the falsified actual measuring read-out or purposeful incorrect measurement as a result of a maneuver in the instrument by the dishonest vendor.
The market official said this practice has caused several consumers to lodge repeated complaints to their office, urging them to conduct inspections every now and then.
It was also learned that last Monday’s surprise inspection was the second conducted by Alawi and his group, just a week after they confiscated 20 tampered weighing scales at the fresh fish section.
Alawi explains tampered scales can be easily detectable by their office because of the use of a calibrated weight tester.
He said he was surprised that after conducting such method, he found that most of the weighing scales tipped to about one gram to one-fourth heavier than the normal.
Alawi laments that aside from scolding, they can only slap erring vendors P50 for the calibration fee and another P200 as penalty for violating RA 7394, known as the Consumers Act of the Philippines.
In a separate conversation with Joseph Sapong, assistant market superintendent, he said that some crooked market vendors were making a heyday with such malpractice after the Timbangan ng Bayan was destroyed by fire last year.
Last September, acting on the complaints of consumers, the inspection team of the City Treasurer’s Office conducted their own surprise inspection on weighing scales used by vendors inside the city market and confiscated about 30.
Alawi said that because of repeated gripes from consumers victimized by this rampant modus operandi of market vendors, he will ask the city government to again install the Timbangan ng Bayan.
REPORT BY JONG CADION
Monday, Dec. 14, Alawi’s team conducted their surprise random inspection at the meat and rice sections inside the Agora and confiscated a total of 16 tampered and unlicensed weighing scales.
Alawi informed this paper that the scales were called “tampered” because of the falsified actual measuring read-out or purposeful incorrect measurement as a result of a maneuver in the instrument by the dishonest vendor.
The market official said this practice has caused several consumers to lodge repeated complaints to their office, urging them to conduct inspections every now and then.
It was also learned that last Monday’s surprise inspection was the second conducted by Alawi and his group, just a week after they confiscated 20 tampered weighing scales at the fresh fish section.
Alawi explains tampered scales can be easily detectable by their office because of the use of a calibrated weight tester.
He said he was surprised that after conducting such method, he found that most of the weighing scales tipped to about one gram to one-fourth heavier than the normal.
Alawi laments that aside from scolding, they can only slap erring vendors P50 for the calibration fee and another P200 as penalty for violating RA 7394, known as the Consumers Act of the Philippines.
In a separate conversation with Joseph Sapong, assistant market superintendent, he said that some crooked market vendors were making a heyday with such malpractice after the Timbangan ng Bayan was destroyed by fire last year.
Last September, acting on the complaints of consumers, the inspection team of the City Treasurer’s Office conducted their own surprise inspection on weighing scales used by vendors inside the city market and confiscated about 30.
Alawi said that because of repeated gripes from consumers victimized by this rampant modus operandi of market vendors, he will ask the city government to again install the Timbangan ng Bayan.
REPORT BY JONG CADION