The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Friday held a ceremonial destruction for ₱110,737,000 worth of potentially hazardous, lead-acid batteries.
The 21,403 substandard batteries were safely destroyed and disposed of at the Pearl Island Industrial Compound in Barangay Punturin, Valenzuela City, in a public demonstration of the agency’s consumer protection efforts, led by Atty. Agaton Uvero, Assistant Secretary for the DTI Fair Trade Group and the Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau, reported RH 23 Edwin Duque.
“This activity forms part of DTI’s ongoing commitment to uphold product safety standards and ensure compliance with mandatory certification requirements,” DTI said.
“It also serves to reinforce DTI’s regulatory mandate to protect consumers from hazardous and sub-quality products,” the agency added.
The confiscated goods lacked the mandatory Philippine Standard (PS) imprints and the import commodity clearance (ICC) stickers, a violation of Republic Act 4109 or the Product Standards Law.
According to the DTI, the items were confiscated during a national surveillance and enforcement activity back in September 2024, alongside the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) under Director Judge Jaime Santiago and the NBI-NCR Director, Ferdinand M. Lavin.
These efforts are made in keeping with the agency’s regulatory mandate to protect consumers from unsafe and poor quality products.
Improper manufacturing, maintenance, and failure to test lead-acid storage batteries may result in chemical leaks, fires, and other environmental hazards which pose serious risks to life and property, the DTI said.
