Road accidents have been happening regularly and one of the reasons for these mishaps is because of being unmindful of the speed limit, not knowing that exceeding beyond the required speed can put someone's life in danger. There is a new law that will consider the installation of speed limiter in public utility mandatory. This law is known as the Republic Act 10916 or an Act Requiring the Mandatory Installation of Speed Limiter in Public Utility and Certain Types of Vehicles. 

SEC. 4. Mandatory Installation of Speed Limiter. 

- No covered vehicle, following the effectivity of this ACt, shall be allowed to run in any road, street or highway in the Philippines without a standard speed limiter in accordance with the standards and specifications approved by the DOTC: Provided, That in case of vehicles which are already registered with any appropriate agency, this requirement shall be complied with not later than eighteen (18) months from the effectivity of this Act. 

SEC. 5. No Speed Limiter, No Registration

-No covered vehicle shall be registered by the LTO or given a franchise by the LTFRB without the standard speed limiter installed and set in the vehicle in compliance with Section 4 and Section 6 hereof. 

SEC. 6. Setting of Standard

-The DOTC shall, in accordance with acceptable international standards, determine the specifications of the speed limiters that may be allowed to be installed in the covered vehicles. The LTO or the LTFRB, shall supervise and inspect the setting of speed limiter corresponding to the maximum allowed in the route plied by a particular covered vehicle. 

SEC. 7. Accreditation

-The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) shall accredit persons, establishments or institutions producing, manufacturing or distributing speed limiters in accordance with the specifications and standards as may be determined by the DOTC. For this purpose, the DTI shall issue the necessary certification attesting compliance with such specifications and standards as a prerequisite for registration. 

SEC. 8. Implementing Rules and Regulations

-The DOTC, in coordination with the LTO, LTFRB, DTI and the Department of Science and Technology and in consultation with private stakeholders, shall formulate and promulgate the necessary implementing rules and regulations of this Act within sixty (60) days upon the effectivity of this Act. 

SEC. 9. Fines/Penalties

-a) The driver who operates a motor vehicle covered by this Act or the owner or operator who allows such driver to operate without the speed limiter herein required shall suffer a fine in the amount of fifty thousand pesos (P50,000.00).

b) The same fine shall be imposed upon the driver, owner or operator who operates or allows a person to operate a motor vehicle with a nonfunctioning or tampered speed limiter. 

In addition to the above fines, a suspension of the driver's license for a period of one (1) month or franchise of a motor vehicle for a period of three (3) months, as the case may be, shall be imposed upon the offender who commits the abovementioned violations for the first time. 

For the commission of any of the foregoing prohibited acts for the second time, the driver's license of the offender shall be suspended for a period of three (3) months or the franchise of a motor vehicle shall be suspended for a period of six (6) months, as the case may be, in addition to the fines herein imposed. 

For the subsequent commission of any of the foregoing prohibited acts, the driver's license of the offender shall be revoked or the franchise of a motor vehicle shall be suspended for a period of one (1) years, as the case may be, in addition to the fines herein imposed. 

c) Any person who is found guilty of tampering as defined in this Act shall suffer a penalty of imprisonment of not less than six (6) months but not more than (3) years and a fine of thirty thousand pesos (P30,000.00)

The provision of this section shall be applied without prejudice to criminal prosecution or civil action under existing applicable laws. 

Most consumers often experience getting their request denied because of the No Return, No Exchange store policy. Do stores really have the right to implement this policy? Pursuant to the Implementing Rules and Regulations of R.A. 7394 or also known as the Consumer Act of the Philippines, consumers have the right to return defective goods or demand remedies in the event that the goods are defective. The presence of this policy is considered as deceptive because if a consumer does not know that the items are defective or imperfect, the sellers should honor complaints and provide warranties to consumers. While there is no specific period within which a buyer may return the purchased item, the rules applied depend on the nature of the purchased goods. 

There are even instances when the store only allows the item be exchanged once. This condition is prohibited because a customer can exchange the item as many times as these are defective as long as the customer opts for replacement. If the store violates the prohibition, the customer can file a complaint with the DTI. 

Consumer Product Quality and Safety

ARTICLE 5.             Declaration of Policy. — It shall be the duty of the State:

a)              to develop and provide safety and quality standards for consumer products, including performance or use-oriented standards, codes of practice and methods of tests;

b)              to assist the consumer in evaluating the quality, including safety, performance and comparative utility of consumer products;

c)              to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injury associated with consumer products;

d)              to undertake research on quality improvement of products and investigation into causes and prevention of product related deaths, illness and injuries;

e)              to assure the public of the consistency of standardized products.

ARTICLE 6.             Implementing Agencies. — The provisions of this Article and its implementing rules and regulations shall be enforced by:

a)              the Department of Health with respect to food, drugs, cosmetics, devices and substances;

b)              the Department of Agriculture with respect to products related to agriculture, and;

c)              the Department of Trade and Industry with respect to other consumer products not specified above.

ARTICLE 7.             Promulgation and Adoption of Consumer Product Standards. — The concerned department shall establish consumer product quality and safety standards which shall consist of one or more of the following:

a)              requirements as to performance, composition, contents, design, construction, finish, packaging of a consumer product;

b)              requirements as to kind, class, grade, dimensions, weights, material;

c)              requirements as to the methods of sampling, tests and codes used to check the quality of the product;

d)              requirements as to precautions in storage, transporting and packaging;

e)              requirements that a consumer product be marked with or accompanied by clear and adequate safety warnings or instructions, or requirements respecting the form of warnings or instructions.

For this purpose, the concerned department shall adopt existing government domestic product quality and safety standards: Provided, That in the absence of such standards, the concerned department shall form specialized technical committees composed of equal number of representatives from each of the Government, business and consumer sectors to formulate, develop and purpose consumer product quality and safety standards. The said technical committees shall consult with the private sector, which may, motu proprio, develop its own quality and safety standards that shall be subject to review and approval of the concerned government agency or agencies after public hearings have been conducted for that purpose; and shall likewise consider existing international standards recognized by the Philippine Government.

ARTICLE 8.             Publication of Consumer Product Standards. — The concerned department shall, upon promulgation of the above standards, publish or cause the publication of the same in two (2) newspapers of general circulation at least once a week for a period of not less than one (1) month. It may likewise conduct an information campaign through other means deemed effective to ensure the proper guidance of consumers, businesses, industries and other sectors concerned.

ARTICLE 9.             Effectivity of Rules. — a) Each consumer product standard or safety rule shall specify the date such rule is to take effect, which shall not exceed ninety (90) days from the date promulgated unless the concerned department finds, for good cause shown, that a later effective date is in the public interest and publishes its reasons for such finding. After which, it shall no longer be legal to, or cause to, sell or distribute the consumer product not complying with the standards or rules.

b)              The department may, by regulation, prohibit a manufacturer from stockpiling consumer products so as to prevent such manufacturer from circumventing the purposes of this paragraph. The term “stockpiling” means manufacturing or importing a product between the date of promulgation of its consumer product safety rule and its effective date, at a rate which is significantly greater than the rate at which such product was produced or imported during a base period, as prescribed in the regulation under this paragraph, ending before the date of promulgation of consumer product safety rule.