Pia sponsors bill strengthening BFAD

MANILA, Oct. 6 (PNA) -- Amid heightened public concern over the safety of milk and other dairy products entering the local market, Senator Pia S. Cayetano will sponsor a bill Monday seeking to strengthen the agency which she considers the country's "first line of defense" in ensuring consumer safety.

Cayetano, Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, is set to sponsor on second reading Senate Bill No. 2645 which aims to reconstitute the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) into the Food, Drugs, Cosmetics and Devices Administration (FDCDA).

Co-authors of the measure as contained in Committee Report No. 104 include Senate President Manny Villar and Sen. Loren Legarda.

Patterned after the structure of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the United States, the FDCDA will have expanded powers to enable the government to better monitor consumer goods in circulation and respond faster in emergency situations involving contaminated products that threaten public safety.

Under the proposal, the FDCDA will have complete testing laboratories in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, as well as field offices in every region. It will also establish the agency's presence in major ports of entry across the archipelago to allow it to monitor and randomly inspect imported products for safety standards.

The measure will likewise expand the agency's mandate to cover a wider range of goods and authorize it to conduct search and seizure of suspected products. The proposed FDCDA will be headed by a Director General with the rank of undersecretary.

SBN 2645 also grants greater fiscal flexibility to FDCDA, including the authority to retain income and adjust product registration fees. This would allow the agency to augment the budget it receives from the national government, she explained.

Cayetano pointed out that the proposed budget for BFAD under the 2009 national budget is P213.72 million, which is merely nine percent higher than its allocation this year at P193.99 million.

Her bigger concern, however, is that the agency will not be given additional funds for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) which will remain at P98.45 million next year, the same as this year's allocation.

"BFAD is often maligned for acting too late or behind other countries. The impression is that we only react after a public health alert has already been issued by the US FDA or elsewhere."

"But what most people don't realize is that this agency, which should be our first line of defense to ensure consumer safety, is badly under-funded and under-staffed to carry out its regulatory function effectively," she stressed.

"How can we expect only 195 field inspectors to effectively monitor and regulate an industry with almost 46,000 establishments all year round?" she asked.

Citing latest available data from BFAD, Cayetano said the agency only had 195 staff tasked to inspect 45,747 establishments selling food, drug and cosmetic products all over the country.

Some of the worst discrepancies can be found in Region IV (13 inspectors for 6,827 establishments or 525 per inspector), Region I (6 inspectors for 2,748 establishments or 458 per inspector) and Region III (10 inspectors 4,254 establishments or 425 per inspector).

BFAD's woes are compounded by inadequate budget. BFAD spends an average of only P271 for the inspection of one establishment. To cover 45,747 establishments, BFAD needs P12.4 million, but only gets P2.4 million as inspection budget.

Additionally, 50,954 products are registered with BFAD in 2006, but the agency was only able to test 16,000 samples of these products in that year due to insufficient budget and equipment.