For decades, residents of IIigan City and nearby municipalities in Lanao del Norte were barely aware of their rights and responsibilities as consumers.
According to the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) National Consumer Awareness Survey conducted across the country in 2012 to 2014, only 30%, 57% and around 60% of those surveyed had actually heard, read or viewed on TV anything about consumerism.
DTI – Lanao del Norte personnel led by Consumer Welfare Division Chief Engr. Elvira G. Redublado hled Barangay Consumer Education Seminars in Iligan City and Lanao del Norte. Joining the seminar as resource person is a paralegal from the Local Government Unit. (DTI-LdN photo)
Respondents could hardly identify their eight basic consumer rights and five fundamental responsibilities. They had no idea on how and where to file a complaint, or even determine what actually constitutes a consumer complaint. Consumers were also unsure of what laws or ordinances they could cite to when asserting their consumer rights.
To help fulfil the DTI’s mandate to increase the level of consumers’ awareness on their rights and responsibilities from 50% to a more respectable 80% by 2016, DTI – Lanao del Norte Provincial Office launched the Awareness-Raising Campaigns for Consumer Empowerment (ARCCE), pursuant to the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011 – 2016.
A consumer empowerment initiative, the ARCCE project aims to increase the level of consumerism by enhancing their knowledge and awareness on the relevant provisions of Consumer Act of the Philippines and other fair trade laws especially in rural areas.
Barangay Price Watch at Bgy. Mahayahay, Iligan City.
Among other things, this involves consumer education seminars in the barangays to encourage a significant number of consumers to purchase duly licensed products and patronize business establishments which comply with government regulations; identify and understand their rights and responsibilities as consumers, guide them in handling their own complaints, and empower barangay officials to establish and maintain barangay-based consumer welfare desk (CWDs).
At present, around twenty barangays and close to a thousand consumers benefited from these Barangay Consumer Education Seminars, including barangay officials, purok presidents, senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), women’s group, store owners and other sectors in the community. Two thirds of the beneficiaries were women.
As one participant from Barangay Tipanoy in Iligan City puts it in the vernacular, “Nagpasalamat me nga adunay seminar sa DTI aron masayran namo kon asa moadto kon dunay problema.”(We are very grateful to DTI for conducting this seminar which informed us on where to go if we have complaints).
Besides focusing on Education and Advocacy in 2015, the Consumer Welfare Division of DTI Lanao del Norte also focused on price and supply stabilization in the barangays to empower consumers in coordination with barangay officials, youth, women and consumer sectors.
Price monitoring activities were conducted in 3 pilot barangays in Iligan City for the Barangay Price Watch Project. Assisting the volunteer-price monitors in the barangays are DTI personnel and staff from the Iligan City Government. The identified barangays are recognized as calamity-prone areas by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. (DTI-LdN Photo)
Barangay Price Watch was piloted in the Iligan barangays of Hinaplanon, Mahayahay, and Buru-un which organized their respective price and supply monitoring teams, and established consumer welfare desks which were assisted with the donation of computers and office furniture by the provincial office.
“Results of the price monitoring were used as baseline data for the price databases that were established for the 3 barangays,” Engr. Elvira G. Redublado, DTI Lanao del Norte Consumer Welfare Division Chief reported. “The databases will be needed by the Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (BDRRMC) in times of calamity especially since these 3 barangays are the most disaster-prone in Iligan City.”
For more information on Barangay Consumer Education Seminars, please contact Provincial Director Ruel B. Paclipan of DTI Lanao del Norte at (063) 221-6151. (DTI Region X)
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