FOUR stores in Dagupan were found last week selling alleged substandard Christmas lights and got a stern warning from the Department of Trade and Industry provincial office. .

Marjurie Loresco, a DTI official, said the owners of these establishments were told to withdraw the substandard materials from their shelves or these would be confiscated by her office.

Loresco said the DTI deployed several teams in the market to monitor Christmas lights for sale that are not safe to use as these might explode and cause fire in homes and offices.

This was in response to reports that the selling of substandard Christmas lights in many stores in Dagupan City and Pangasinan is again rampant because of the approaching yuletide season.

Loresco withheld the names of the establishments but said these are all located on A.B. Fernandez Avenue, Dagupan City’s principal streets.

The products being sold by the four establishments were found to have no import community clearance (ICC) in violation of existing law, including those on safety.

For customers to be assured of standard quality of merchandise, products must always carry their quality standard logo, PS (Product Safety) standard mark if these are locally-made, and ICC (Import Community Clearance) mark if imported, Loresco advised.

Loresco hailed the recent confiscation of substandard Christmas lights by the DTI and the Bureau of Customs in Manila as this will help ensure that distributors will no longer ship these products to retailers in the provinces.

She did not fault the retailers since the substandard decorative Christmas lights, according to her, are just being sourced out by them from big distributors and suppliers based in Metro Manila.

She said a substandard Christmas light is not safe to use because it has unacceptable temperature level, which might cause it to explode and ignite a fire. (PNA)