Environmentalists on Tuesday filed a petition for writ of mandamus enjoining the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to order the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Health to immediately issue Republic Act 10620’s implementing rules and regulations.
Rene Pineda of the EcoWaste Coalition led the filing of the petition, along with Laban Konsyumer Inc. president and lawyer Vic Dimagiba and counsel for the petitioners Atty. Gregorio Rafael Bueta.
At least 20 mothers accompanied the two environmentalist groups.
“The inexcusable five-year delay in the issuance of the IRRs has unjustly deprived consumers, particularly parents and their children, access to vital product labeling information that can help in making informed purchasing decision and prevent hasty purchases of unsafe and unsuitable toys,” Pineda said.
The groups hit the DTI and DOH for their failure to release the IRRs of RA 10620 or the “Toy and Game Safety Labeling Act” five years after the law’s passage.
According to Pineda, the filing coincided with the national observance of the consumer welfare month and international lead poisoning prevention week from Oct. 21 to Oct. 27.
Then President Benigno Aquino III signed into law RA 10620 on Sept. 3, 2013.
Section 12 mandates the DTI and DOH to promulgate the law’s corresponding guidelines.
Dimagiba challenged the two government agencies over their supposed “open bias in favor of toy manufacturers.”
According to Bueta, the five-year delay to issue the IRRs was “unacceptable and is even unheard of.”
Based on the petition, a first draft of the IRRs was submitted for public consultation in April 2014, in which the EcoWaste Coalition participated and submitted comments.
In May 2014, the technical working group met to discuss the comments received during the consultation.
Since May 27, 2014, the technical working group composed of the DTI and DoH, together with the other stakeholders, have yet to issue any IRRs, the petition read.