Malacañang quickly dismissed the mislabeling of Manila as a Chinese province on a beauty product as mere “foolishness”, after a lawmaker published its photo on social media and took actions to blacklist the distributor.
Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles said a Chinese hair care product that labeled its address in Binondo, Manila as a “province of the People’s Republic of China” should be investigated.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque simply called it foolishness as he stressed that no one would believe the mislabeling of the address.
“Sa akin, kalokohan lang iyan. Hindi dapat pinapansin iyan dahil wala naman maniniwala na tayo ay probinsya ng Tsina,” Roque said, noting that “we are proud to be Filipinos.”
[That’s foolishness. You shouldn’t pay attention to that because no one will believe that we are a province of China.]
The product, Ashley Shine Keratin Treatment Deep Repair, is distributed by Binondo-based enterprise Elegant Fumes Beauty Products owned by a Chinese national.
Roque said Malacañang would let the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decide whether to blacklist the distributor or not.
“Let’s allow the FDA to exercise their exclusive jurisdiction pagdating sa bagay na iyan (when it comes to that matter),” he said.
Filipinos have previously called out incidents linking or identifying the Philippines as a province of China. Malacañang has repeatedly brushed off such incidents.
