House OKs Timbangan ng Bayan bill

The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to establish Timbangan ng Bayan centers in all marketplaces nationwide and penalizing those who will tamper with official weighing scales.

Voting 199-0, the chamber approved House Bill 7857, authored by Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself, which aims to allow consumers to check the accuracy of the weight and quantity of the goods they are buying, as well as discourage dishonesty among vendors.

“It will help to make sure that in the markets, when customers would buy their products, then they know that it’s really the right quantity and the right weight,” Arroyo said in an ambush interview with reporters.

The measure seeks to insert a new provision in RA 7394, or the “Consumer Act of the Philippines," mandating all local government units to establish Timbangan ng Bayan Centers in all markets nationwide --- whether public or private --- including "tiangges."

Weighing instruments and measures will be open and accessible to anyone who wants to see the accuracy of the quantity of the products her or she purchased.

At the same time, the measure amends Section (h) of Article 64 of RA 7394 in order to prohibit for any person “to fraudulently alter, tamper, vandalize or destroy any scale, balance, Timbangan ng Bayan, weight or measure after it is officially sealed.”

Instruments for determining weights and measures shall be open for and accessible to anyone who needs to verify the accuracy of the quantity and measurement of the products they purchase.

Violators of the bill will be slapped with stiffer penalties, depending on the provision of the measure violated, including payment of fines up to P300,000 and imprisonment for up to five years. — Tina Panganiban-Perez and Erwin Colcol/RSJ, GMA News