Protecting consumers from inferior cement

In Laguna last June nine men were arrested adulterating high-grade cement with cheap lime. They confessed to repacking it for a dishonest local retailer. In La Union last week consumerists queried two hardware sellers about expired cement stocks more than six months old. The latter pointed to a nearby warehouse, where 90,000 bags of inferior stuff had just come in from abroad, though made as far back as Oct. 2016. Regulators report hundreds of thousands more bags elsewhere with no production date at all. Since 2013 construction industry talk has been of proliferating substandard cement and steel. More than half the 14,500 collapsed structures in Bohol from the earthquake that year, and 41,300 houses leveled by super-typhoon in Leyte-Samar showed poor building materials. Only now are proofs emerging of deliberate cheating. Being watched are shipments to Subic, Bataan, Iloilo, Leyte, Cotabato, Davao, and General Santos City.

The Dept. of Trade and Industry has tightened the rules to protect consumers. Henceforth, a cement importer must have the bags stamped with his and the manufacturer’s names and addresses, and the production date. He is to secure an ICC (import commodity clearance), aside from that for PS (product safety). Capitalization must be at least P20 million. The DTI aims to ferret out the fly-by-nights. The Philippines imports 160 million bags a year. Buyers are not the big constructors that strictly test cement deliveries, but unwitting homeowners and small contractors looking to lower their work costs. Cheap adulterated, expired, and low-quality cement can be used in making roads and foot bridges, house foundations and walls. Lives and limbs would be imperiled, as shoddy cement cannot bear construction loads, warns Atty. Oliver San Antonio of the National Coalition of Filipino Consumers.

There are the usual howls against new impositions. “Unnamed sources” have caused the publication of news bits accusing DTI U-Sec. Ted Pascua of favoring the local cement makers. Those locals also import when their productions fall short of the usual 600 million bags per year. And their foreign sources supposedly are the same as the small importers’, so the quality is the same. So why are the locals exempt from obtaining the extra ICCs, the “unnamed sources” ask? Allegedly the stiffer importations would cripple the government’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure plan. Retail prices would spike.

It would seem from the sniping that cement comes from only a handful of suppliers across Asia. In truth, while bulk comes from Vietnam, other imports come from Indonesia, Thailand, China, and Korea. There are six major cement producers in Vietnam alone, not counting smaller makers. Vietnam has a staggering 58 integrated cement factories, compared to the Philippines’ 18. The resulting glut is why cement is now being dumped into markets like the Philippines.

The locals fall under separate rules. Both their local outputs and imports must carry their brand names, addresses and production dates. They are subject to periodic product tests at the factories, aside from the bulk buyer-constructors’ own examinations. Importing poor quality stocks would ruin their brand names and jeopardize multibillion-peso investments. In contrast some small importers, who incidentally also smuggle in garlic and onion, disappear from one-room shared offices when things get hot.

“Far from compromising the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program,” Pascua says, “we are preventing it from ‘fall, fall, fall’ due to inferior cement.” Constant price monitoring with consumerists averts price cartelizing, he says. Since the new import rules were enforced in May, three-dozen reputable importers have complied. They welcomed the P20-million minimum capital rule to separate the bad eggs. Retail rates remain at below P200 per bag.

Local steelmakers, meanwhile, are lobbying for the same strict testing of imported wares like they undergo. The DTI tests at the factory every 20 tons of produced reinforcement and angle bars, per size. Yet for imports it only random-tests three pieces per shipment, regardless of size or type. The locals also advise consumers to check that the bars they buy are embossed with the steelmaker’s name, logo, PS license, and product size and weight. That should distinguish them from low-quality undersized stocks dumped into the Philippines.

It’s going to be dry in the months ahead, weathermen say of the ongoing El Niño. It would be a good time for home repairs and remodeling. Construction is expected to boom.

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“Pagsambang Bayan,” the iconic anti-martial law play first staged in 1977, the fifth year of the Marcos dictatorship, is now a musical. Originally employing liturgical and nationalist songs, it is set to music, dance, and digital images on burning issues of 45 years ago and today.

“Pagsambang Bayan The Musical” boasts of an award-winning creative team: Joel C. Lamangan, director; Bonifacio P. Ilagan, playwright-librettist; Jed Balsamo, musical director-composer-arranger; Lucien Letaba, contributing composer; Leeroy New, production designer; and Joey Nombres, lights designer.

Playdates: Fridays and Saturdays 3 and 7 p.m., Aug. 11-19 at the Tanghalang PUP, Polytechnic University of the Philippines Masscom compound, Sta. Mesa, Manila. Then, Sunday, Sept. 3, 3 and 7 p.m., Irvin Theater, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan, Quezon City.

For bookings, sponsorships, and tickets, contact Tag-ani: (+63) 9228 252604, (+63) 9228 995754, and (+63) 9088 124781/email [email protected] and [email protected].

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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