PBA party-list Representative Jericho Nograles is pushing to blacklist a Chinese hair product in the country after its label listed Manila as province of China.
Nograles sent a letter of complaint to the Department of Trade and Industry and the Food and Drug Administration about the Chinese hair care product Ashley Shine Keratin Treatment Deep Repair. At the back of the product is its address, “1st Flr. 707 Ito Cristo St., San Nicolas, Manila Province, P.R. China.”
The lawmaker said a company in Binondo owned by a Chinese national imported and distributed the beauty product.
“Any act to undermine our sovereignty must be taken seriously. It is in this light that we respectfully ask your Office to immediately investigate this detestable and repulsive offense against our nation, and, if legally justified, prohibit the continued distribution of these products in our country,” he said in his letters.
According to the information he gathered, Nograles said the product was manufactured in 2018 and is still being distributed across the country.
“Succeeding batches of this product already omitted the declaration, but the offense remains the same,” he said.
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Nograles believes that labeling Manila as province of China could have been intentional as it was “hard to dismiss this insult as a simple error.”
“The label clearly shows Manila, as a province of China. This incident must be investigated at the very least, and the manufacturer and importer should be blacklisted as soon as legally permitted,” he said.
He added incident should also push lawmakers to establish a measure that would penalize mislabeling on consumer goods.
In June 2018, tarpaulins saying the Philippines as a “province of China” were spotted on several roads in Metro Manila for the second anniversary of the Philippines’ victory on its arbitration case involving the disputed South China Sea.
“Welcome to the Philippines, Province of China,” the tarpaulins said.
Malacañang then said the “enemies of government” were behind the installation of tarpaulins. “It’s absurd, and I’m sure it’s the enemies of our government behind it. So to them: try again, you need a better gimmick than that,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said at a news conference.