DTI-PAB Celebrates 9th Anniversary by Conducting Free Webinars and Honoring Stakeholders

The Department of Trade and Industry – Philippine Accreditation Bureau (DTI-PAB) conducted a week-long celebration of its 9th anniversary, emphasizing the importance of letting the general public know the importance of accreditation, accreditation standards, and accredited conformity assessment services. Its 9th year celebration was capped off by recognizing and honoring its assessors and experts, external resources speakers, assessment evaluation panel, and committee members, who generously invested their time and expertise in assisting PAB to carry out its mandate.

A webinar entitled, “Getting to Know PAB,” kicked off the series of webinars that were slated from October 17-20, 2022. It was aimed at providing the general public with information about the bureau’s mandates and services, and how these services may contribute to the quality and safety of the goods and services they consume.

This was followed by standard-specific free webinars which included awareness on the following standards: ISO/IEC 17020 (requirements for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection); ISO/IEC 17025 (testing and calibration laboratories); ISO/IEC 17043:2010 (general requirements for proficiency testing), and; ISO 15189:2012 (medical laboratories — requirements for quality and competence).

These topics were discussed by our local speakers, Engr. Aldwin B. Tagapan (ISO/IEC 17025), Ms. Leah C. Dajay, RCh, MSc (ISO/IEC 17043), Engr. Ana B. Opeda (ISO 15189), and foreign speaker, Dr. Aparna Dhawan, Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC)’s Communication and Promotion Committee Chair and TIC Council India’s Executive Director.

DTI, UNIDO and the Government of Switzerland Officially Launched the Global Quality and Standards Programme (GQSP) Special Measure Project in the Philippines

Manila – 14 October 2022, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), together with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, represented by the Embassy of Switzerland in the Philippines, launched the Global Quality and Standards Programme (GQSP) in the Philippines: Standards and Conformity Assessment for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Medical Devices.
The overall purpose of the GQSP in the Philippines is to help address the need to provide adequate supplies of PPEs, medical device, and sanitation products, meeting the required global quality and safety product and manufacturing standards. This will be done through strengthening the capacity of the country’s national quality infrastructure (NQI) to promote and verify compliance of the commodities mentioned with relevant quality and safety standards.
“Right now, we still don’t have a strong NQI, the ecosystem is fragmented and hence this project really would create a very big impact especially as we build the NQI ecosystem here in the country.” shared Dr. Rafaelita Aldaba, DTI Undersecretary for the Competitiveness and Innovation Group on her message after the ceremonial signing.
Dr. Aldaba further emphasized that the GQSP will certainly boost the capacity of the NQI of the Philippines, especially in terms of promoting and verifying the compliance of critical products with relevant quality and safety standards.
UNIDO Country Representative, Mr. Teddy Monroy, expressed his full support for the initiative. He stressed that “UNIDO will strongly collaborate with government in strengthening the country’s NQI and ensure adequate supply of fit-to-purpose PPEs and medical devices. This will not only prepare the country to become a major global actor in manufacturing and international trade, but also contribute to achieving important health outcomes.”
While contributing to availability of PPEs and medical devices for the general population and the health workers that meet quality and safety standards, the project also aims to protect the income generating capacities of its citizens.
H.E. Alain Gaschen, Ambassador of Switzerland in the Philippine, recalled his country’s experiences in building their Quality Infrastructure and how this has helped his country attain economic success today. He shared their ongoing cooperation with DTI which includes the GQSP and further reiterated Switzerland’s support to UNIDO’s mandate of promoting inclusive and sustainable industrial development through progress by innovation.
The three signed a pledge of commitment that highlighted the strong collaboration between the Government of the Philippines, UNIDO and the Government of Switzerland towards assisting the Philippine Government, the country’s industrial sector and related value chains in adopting principles around inclusive and sustainable development and enhancing the level of competitiveness, innovation, productivity, safety, health and environmental soundness and sustainability of locally-manufactured goods and services, fit for both domestic and international markets.

PAB Maintains Calibrated Assessments by Capacitating its Assessors

PAB ensures that its
assessments are calibrated by providing regular policy and standard updates to
its assessors and experts through its yearly forum. This year’s Assessors and
Experts’ Forum of the Laboratory Accreditation Division (LAD) was held uniquely
as LAD collaborated with the Promotion and Documentation Division (PDD) to
incorporate a competency-building program for its assessors.

The week-long activity
kicked off on April 4, 2022 with focus on addressing assessors’ concerns and
challenges faced during assessments. It also served as a venue to receive
suggestions to improve PAB’s accreditation processes and system. This was
followed by the competency-building activities that included Data Privacy on
April 5, 2022, Statistical Tools in the Interpretation of Laboratory Results on
April 5-6, 2022, and Risk Management on April 7-8, 2022.

DTI-CIG Asst. Secretary Napoleon K. Juanillo, Jr. highlighted that the forum was aimed at enhancing the assessors’ understanding on PAB’s policies and requirements. He also emphasized that the competency-building activities associated in this year’s forum were carried out to show appreciation for their hard work and dedication in doing service excellence.

“As a way of saying thank you for all your hard work and dedication in
providing your service as our assessors and experts, we have prepared three
competency-building webinars for you.

These competency building activities have been realized because of your suggestions during the previous forums. Therefore, we encourage you to tell us how we could further contribute in your growth as PAB assessors and experts,” Asec. Juanillo said.

With the specificity of the topics, PAB engaged external resource speakers who have proven knowledge and experiences in the said fields.