MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of sub-standard Christmas light sets were seized by the police at a Divisoria mall yesterday as a prelude to a more stringent drive against the proliferation of unsafe Yuletide decorations.
Police also discovered that some unscrupulous traders paste fake import commodity clearance stickers on sub-standard products to make them appear that they had been inspected by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which told consumers to only buy products with ICC stickers since their quality and safety are assured.
“This compromises the lives of the buyers since sub-standard Christmas lights cause fires, which claim lives and property,” said Meisic police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut.
Yabut and a team led by SPO4 Ver Navarro raided the 168 Mall in Divisoria yesterday morning, seizing more than a thousand defective Christmas lights with brand names Circle, Mabuhay Star Light, Multifunction Rice Light and North Light from different stalls in the presence of the mall administrator and security personnel.
Yabut said the stall owners admitted buying the ICC stickers at P2 each from distributors of unsafe Christmas lights.
The police confiscated several rolls of fake ICC stickers, which will be sent to the DTI for proper disposition.
The erring stall owners shall be charged accordingly, according to Yabut. Police are doing a follow-up operation to determine the source of fake ICC stickers.
Yabut advised the public to inspect the Christmas lights they are buying and not be deceived by the presence of ICC stickers on the products since “their happy celebration of the Christmas season could turn into a tragedy.” – Nestor Etolle