SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—A steel industry group said the public should be warned about a shipment of deformed steel bars from China which passed through this free port recently.
In a statement, the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (Pisi) said allowing 4,929 metric tons of deformed steel bars to be released into the market without proper testing would expose the public to “unnecessary risk.”
“People’s lives are at stake here. Why was there a concerted effort to release the shipment before proper testing and put people at risk?” Roberto Cola, Pisi president, said.
Cola said substandard steel bars were found in collapsed buildings and structures in 2013 when an earthquake struck Central Visayas and killed more than 200 people.
The shipment, consigned to Mannage Resources Trading Corp. (MRTC), arrived here on April 22, and was held for two months by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Subic, owing to fears that these were substandard and would be sold in the local market.
The shipment was stored at a warehouse at the Naval Supply Depot here when samples were tested by representatives of the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
The DTI Zambales office issued an import commodity clearance for the shipment following a May 16 report which concluded that samples of the steel bars had passed the mechanical, chemical and physical tests required by law.
But Cola questioned the tests done on the product samples, saying these were not witnessed by industry experts.
“[MRTC] keeps saying its steel bars were tested and passed [the standards], but the truth is the tests were done in China and were rejected by the DTI for being deficient and incomplete,” said Cola.
“Our question is: Why did they test only one sample out of the 5,000 metric tons when 250 samples and tests were required. And why did they conduct the tests without customs and industry representatives as required?”
He also said the BOC Port of Subic, which was alerted about the shipment’s lack of permits, had turned around and supported MRTC in the end.
But lawyer Ernelito Aquino, BOC Subic district collector, said his decision to lift the alert order was based on his office’s findings after conducting hearings.
“We conducted two hearings and our findings showed that there was no probable cause to [seize] the shipment,” Aquino said on Friday.
Aquino said MRTC had paid duties and taxes for the steel bars, prompting him to allow the release of the shipment on June 22.
Lawyer Walfredo Bayhon, director of DTI legal service, said Pisi’s allegation that the sampling and testing done on the steel bars were less stringent was “completely malicious, baseless, and highly irresponsible.”
“The agency will continue to perform its mandate and exercise its jurisdiction on consumer, trade and industry matters conferred on it by laws,” Bayhon said in a July 22 letter to Pisi lawyers. Allan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon