Legarda pushes anew for BFAD strengthening
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Loren Legarda on Tuesday pushed anew for the strengthening of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD), which would allow stricter testing of all food and health products sold in the Philippines.
In a press statement, Legarda, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said the threat of tainted and counterfeit food has become a global concern. She cited a study of Michigan State University showing trade in counterfeit food has become a $50-billion-a-year industry.
“This concerns us as much as other nations as counterfeit food items, medicines and supplements are said to be flooding global markets, thereby endangering the health and well-being of people," said Legarda.
She said Senate Bill 2645, which she authored and is now pending before the bicameral conference committee, would create a stronger BFAD and renamed Food, Drugs, Cosmetics and Devices Administration (FDCDA).
The bill would strengthen BFAD’s regulatory capacity and establish field testing laboratories. The FDCDA would then have the authority to order a ban or recall on products for which it had received complaints from the public.
To ensure due process for traders, the FDCDA is mandated to conduct investigations on the merits of the complaints, she explained.
“But the health and safety of our people is the paramount concern, thus a suspension on the trade of suspicious products may be ordered pending a full-blown probe on the basis of the complaints," Legarda said.
Unlike other counterfeit items like bags and clothing, she said, counterfeit food and health products are of graver concern because they can kill, injure or result in illnesses.
She cited as example the health crisis spawned by the sale to the public of milk contaminated with melamine, which killed and made sick a number of children in China. In the Philippines, the melamine scare caused the pullout from store shelves of milk and other dairy products sourced from China.
Legarda’s proposed legislation also aims to strengthen the post-market surveillance system, which means that the FDCDA will continue to monitor and regulate food and health products even after its production or even when the end products are already in market and store shelves.
She said that the Philippines must link up with global rapid alert systems to protect Filipinos from goods that had been found to be counterfeit or tainted.
She said the Philippines may consider moves parallel to what the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are doing, including developing a system to better diagnose which shipments pose the most risk and to people.
While, she said, the Philippines cannot send inspectors overseas, like the US FDA, it can forge a working relationship with the said agency and with similar agencies established by other countries to have access to their database on sources of contaminated or counterfeit products for proper action. - Amita O. Legaspi, GMANews.TV
In a press statement, Legarda, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, said the threat of tainted and counterfeit food has become a global concern. She cited a study of Michigan State University showing trade in counterfeit food has become a $50-billion-a-year industry.
“This concerns us as much as other nations as counterfeit food items, medicines and supplements are said to be flooding global markets, thereby endangering the health and well-being of people," said Legarda.
She said Senate Bill 2645, which she authored and is now pending before the bicameral conference committee, would create a stronger BFAD and renamed Food, Drugs, Cosmetics and Devices Administration (FDCDA).
The bill would strengthen BFAD’s regulatory capacity and establish field testing laboratories. The FDCDA would then have the authority to order a ban or recall on products for which it had received complaints from the public.
To ensure due process for traders, the FDCDA is mandated to conduct investigations on the merits of the complaints, she explained.
“But the health and safety of our people is the paramount concern, thus a suspension on the trade of suspicious products may be ordered pending a full-blown probe on the basis of the complaints," Legarda said.
Unlike other counterfeit items like bags and clothing, she said, counterfeit food and health products are of graver concern because they can kill, injure or result in illnesses.
She cited as example the health crisis spawned by the sale to the public of milk contaminated with melamine, which killed and made sick a number of children in China. In the Philippines, the melamine scare caused the pullout from store shelves of milk and other dairy products sourced from China.
Legarda’s proposed legislation also aims to strengthen the post-market surveillance system, which means that the FDCDA will continue to monitor and regulate food and health products even after its production or even when the end products are already in market and store shelves.
She said that the Philippines must link up with global rapid alert systems to protect Filipinos from goods that had been found to be counterfeit or tainted.
She said the Philippines may consider moves parallel to what the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are doing, including developing a system to better diagnose which shipments pose the most risk and to people.
While, she said, the Philippines cannot send inspectors overseas, like the US FDA, it can forge a working relationship with the said agency and with similar agencies established by other countries to have access to their database on sources of contaminated or counterfeit products for proper action. - Amita O. Legaspi, GMANews.TV
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