A vital food safety issue

Senator Pia Cayetano’s convening the Senate Health Committee to look into the possible effects on the country of the radiation fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan was both timely and vital.

The business sector also welcomed the presence of Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) director Suzette Henares-Lazo at the hearing. Lazo was among the first to caution against a local panic in the wake of fears that food items coming from Japan could be contaminated with radioactivity. She assured Cayetano that her agency is closely monitoring the quality and safety of food items coming from quake-hit Japan.

While Cayetano and Lazo are looking at a vital food safety issue, we hope they would inquire into a similar issue that has long festered at the local market. The issue affects Filipino consumers, particularly those who prefer to buy their needs from wet markets and talipapas all over the country.

Attention has long been called to the proliferation of dips or condiments that are being sold in these local markets on the so-called takal basis, or retailing the products into smaller portions placed in plastic bags or other smaller containers.

Three favorite Filipino dips are widely sold using this scheme: vinegar (suka), soy sauce (toyo), and fish sauce (patis).

They should immediately investigate whether or not this takal scheme is putting the health of many Filipinos in danger. Concerns have long been raised that these condiments may not be compliant to food grade and food safety standards. That they are being consumed by the masa is not an excuse to let them get away with murder (pun intended).

Two things need to be looked into immediately. First, the ingredients that go into these unbranded condiments are mostly unlabeled, so consumers do not know what actually went into them. Buyers do not even know who manufactured them. They are bought simply because they could be as cheap as P10 per takal.

The other concern which Cayetano and Lazo may want to look at are the sanitary standards by which these cheap condiments are being peddled. Who makes sure the tools of takal are actually not contaminated by toxic substances and materials? At the end of the day, to whom are the takal troops accountable?

At the end of the day, it is the masa that needs the conscious active protection by the government. They hardly read product labels – and there are mostly none in the products retailed to them. They will dip into what they can afford – which makes them vulnerable to producers and retailers whose sole motive is to make a killing out of this captive market.

MTRCB should expand probe

The investigation being conducted by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) on the alleged child abuse case involving a six-year-old boy in the March 12 edition of the primetime game show “Willing Willie” is a step in the right direction.

But if the MTRCB really wants reforms, it should expand the probe to cover the entire television industry and other programs that also deal with children. The industry-wide review should result in the formulation of clear-cut guidelines on what’s appropriate and acceptable conduct on the part of TV hosts and performers, guests, game show contestants and everyone else that make up the industry.

At any rate, because the issue being raised against Willie Revillame and “Willing Willie” is child abuse, which, as lawyers have said, is a criminal offense, is the MTRCB the proper venue for the determination of guilt or innocence of Revillame? Or should it be the court?

I’m really surprised that while practically everyone who has commented on the issue says Revillame is guilty of child abuse and exploitation, no one, not even the DSWD or the Commission on Human Rights, has deemed it fit to file a case in court. Is it because they don’t really know what they’re talking about in the first place? Or are they simply ignorant of the law?

I’m glad, though, that some MTRCB members have inhibited themselves from hearing the “Willing Willie” case.

It stands to reason that anyone in the MTRCB connected with ABS-CBN, whether at present or in the past, should inhibit out of delicadeza. We all know that there’s no love lost between the giant TV network and Revillame. ABS-CBN has even filed court cases against Revillame for alleged breach of contract for “Wowowee” and to stop “Willing Willie” from airing over TV5.  

So it’s only proper that the members of the MTRCB panel hearing the case have decided to inhibit.

The wife of a member of the MTRCB panel, a certain Villareal, is said to be working for ABS-CBN.

Another MTRCB member, Eric Mallonga, is a consultant of Bantay-Bata, a foundation of the Lopez group of companies.  

Another MTRCB member, Leah Navarro, had written three negative comments against Revillame in her Twitter account. Thus, she had already prejudged the game show host and cannot be expected to render a fair and impartial judgment.

We all know that Susan Roces, the mother of MTRCB chair Grace Poe-Llamanzares, is an ABS-CBN talent herself, although she appears in a TV5 teleserye. Will Llamanzares follow suit?

There should be absolutely no conflict of interest on the part of MTRCB members when they deliberate on the case.

And the guidelines to be issued later on as a result of the investigation should apply to all TV stations, not just to “Willing Willie” and TV5.

Affordability test

The Aquino administration should subject big-ticket infrastructure project proposals under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program to an “affordability” test to meet the overriding public concern of better, yet affordable services, according to a prominent private think tank.

Forensic Law and Policy Strategies Inc. (Forensic Solutions) said in its 19th policy paper that this proposed affordability should have 10 components to protect the public from unreasonably high tariffs imposed by PPPs.

This include requirements on long repayment schemes, caps on rate of return, low-interest financing plus tax holidays and other incentives not only from the national government but also from local government units (LGUs) hosting these would-be projects. 

Onetime justice secretary and solicitor general Alberto Agra, who heads Forensic Solutions, stressed in the policy paper that the first five PPP projects identified by Malacañang for PPP funding should undergo this affordability test, given that they all involve public transport infrastructure requiring “user fees,” especially if these are to be pursued via the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) option or any of its variants or the joint venture (JV) or concession agreement modes.

Agra pointed out that by definition, a PPP should provide more affordable tariffs, ensure delivery of better quality of service and better value for money for government. Thus, a successful PPP may be measured by the affordability of the tariffs or direct user fees. A PPP which yields a high, unreasonable or excessive tariff may be classified as a failed PPP.

The 10-point affordability test includes:  a long-term, as against a short term, project life, to spread out the cost recovery period on investments and mitigate the impact of tariffs on consumers;  long-term repayment schemes; low-interest financing extending by state and private banking institutions; proper risk allocation; and  a cap on rate-of-return.

Agra said the other measures to ensure that the public is shielded from high tariffs from PPP projects are: the provision of government guarantees, subsidies or financing via Official Development Assistance, financing institutions or the national budget to lighten the burden on the private sector which will seek to recover its costs by way of user fees; incentives and exemptions by the national government; additional incentives offered by LGUs hosting the PPP project; allowing the private sector to assume various outputs in a PPP project through   multi-component modes  to give it more flexibility in meeting key performance indicators; and allowing innovations by the private sector in completing a PPP project.

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