By
Alma L. Tingcang
TITAY, Zamboanga Sibugay – Thirty
(30) new weighing scales were recently turnedover by the Department of Trade
and Industry to TitayBagsakan Center, this province under the Shared Service
Facility (SSF) program.
Dir. Sitti Amina M. Jain, DTI-9 Regional
Director turned over properly calibrated weighing scales to Mayor Maria
Esperanza Corazon D. Rillera in a brief ceremony inside the Bagsakan Center.
“I am so glad to be turning over
30 units of weighing scales which will address the concerns of rubber traders
and producers on the manipulation of weighing scales. We thought that giving
you properly calibrated weighing scales would hopefully address the problem
between traders and farmers,” the lady chief explained.
She said producers accuse
traders of manipulation, while farmers, on the other hand, use battery solution
as coagulant, worse, put foreign matters to their products to make it heavier.
For this project, the local government unit
of Titay will be the cooperator for the thirty (30) weighing scale units
amounting toPhp 326,640.00.
Mayor Rilleraexpressed her gratefulness to
DTI for the weighing scales which will benefit all constituents. The good mayor
further stressed their commitment to maintain and secure the units of weighing
scales.
“In behalf of Titay LGU, we
are very thankful to DTI for providing us 30 weighing scales that will benefit
everybody in our Bagsakan Center. We are indeed blessed for having this
project. We can now be assured of the accuracy of our weighing scales as these
are properly calibrated,” the lady chief executive said.
“Zamboanga Sibugay is the
number one rubber producing province in the country, yet we also produce dirty
rubber. I am challenging our farmers to make sure that you produce good quality
rubber. Let us cleanse our industry in the province,”Board Member and Committee
on Agriculture chair Joel Ebol said.
Meanwhile, Yokohama, the only
car tire manufacturer in the country, ironically, only source out about 10%-20%
of their natural rubber requirement from the Philippines.
Dir. Jain said Yokohama
officials personally told DTI officials, including her, that they will not buy
rubber from Zamboanga Sibugay because of its poor quality.
“We already talked with
Yokohama officials and they told us that they will not buy rubber from
Zamboanga Sibugay because it is dirty. It pains me because I’m from Region 9.
They don’t have problems with rubber from Basilan, nor from other rubber
producers in Mindanao. It is only Zamboanga Sibugay that is always
singled-out,” Jain said.
However, all is not lost as Dir. Jain bared that Yokohama will be increasing its
local sourcing to 32% next year.