The Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Philippine Accreditation Bureau (PAB) celebrated World Accreditation Day (WAD) 2016 with a week-long program of activities including the hosting of the DTI flag raising ceremony on 6 June 2016.
An orientation on Accreditation was held on June 07, 2016 at St. Giles Hotel Makati attended by fifty-seven (57) participants from different government agencies, regulators and private industries and organizations. The event aims to raise awareness on accreditation and to promote the use of accredited conformity assessment bodies to private industries and other organizations. DTI-PAB discussed key concepts of accreditation and Mutual and Multilateral Recognition Arrangements (MRA/MLA). The DTI- Bureau of Philippine Standards, on the other hand discussed its Product Certification Schemes.
The week-long celebration was capped with a forum on Accreditation, the carrying WAD theme “Accreditation: A Global Tool to Support Public Policy”. It was held on June 09 2016, the actual day of WAD commemoration, at DTI International Building Makati City attended by fifty-six (56) participants from different government agencies, regulators and private industries.
One of the highlights of the forum was the presentation on the different global examples where accreditation has been used to support public policy efforts which can be adopted in the Philippines.
DTI- Consumer Protection Group (CPG) Undersecretary Atty. Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba formally opened both events. In his welcome address, he stressed on the assurance of accurate and reliable results that accreditation can provide to conformity assessment bodies performing certification, testing, inspection and calibration. . He also emphasized that government can help in improving performance of business and industry by encouraging the use of ‘trusted’ conformity assessments to minimize risks and facilitate trade and educating the public on consuming products and services certified by accredited organizations will enhance consumer welfare.
An expert from Trade Related Technical Assistance Project 3 for Conformity Assessment, Mr. Mike McNerney, urged regulators and the national accreditation body such as DTI-PAB to work hand-in-hand with independent third-party accreditation as laid out in the World Trade Organization- Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO-TBT) Agreement. This agreement can be a basis in licensing Conformity Assessment Bodies by regulators resulting in mutual recognition of conformity assessment results by members to reduce public costs.
PAB is the national accreditation body of the Philippines. As of May 31, 2016, PAB accreditation has been awarded to 183 testing and 38 calibration laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025), 6 medical laboratories (ISO 15189), 5 inspection bodies (ISO/IEC 17020), and 6 certification bodies for certification of management systems (ISO/IEC 17021), such as quality (ISO 9001), environment (ISO 14001) and food safety (ISO/TS 22003) and 1 certification body for certification of products (ISO 17065).