The National Institute for the Protection of Consumer Rights (Pro Consumer) and the Specialized Fuel Control Body (CECCOM) dumped this Thursday a huge amount of adulterated alcoholic beverages that were seized in operations carried out in different provinces of the country.
Within the framework of a press conference headed by the head of Pro Consumidor, Eddy Alcántara, and the general director of CECCOM, Brigadier General César Augusto Miranda MañónThey showed the journalists hundreds of bottles and jugs containing the adulterated beverages, which they then proceeded to dump in front of the headquarters of this consumer defense institution.
Alcántara and General Miranda Mañón warned together with the director of the General Directorate of Medicines, Food and Sanitary Products (DIGEMAPS), of Public Health, Leandro Villanueva; the deputy attorney general of the Specialized Attorney for Crimes and Crimes Against Health, Rafael Brito, and the Vice Minister of Internal Trade for Industry, Commerce and MSMEs, Ramón Pérez Fermín, who will take drastic measures against businesses that sell adulterated alcoholic beverages, such as the definitive closure of these businesses and submission of the owners to justice.
“We are not going to allow the owners of these businesses to continue incurring in this illegal practice, putting the health of the Dominican people at risk,” they affirmed.
Likewise, the officials explained that the initiative of the operation is due to the increase in the consumption of counterfeit beverages on the Easter holiday.
They indicated that those merchants who are caught selling these illegal products will be sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of Law 358-05 on Consumer Protection and subject to legal action, in accordance with the provisions of the different punishable regulations.
They stressed that all the actors in society must fight together to definitively eradicate this evil that does so much harm to society and that thanks to the work being done by the government headed by President Luis Abinader “today its sales have decreased considerably ”.
In this sense, they reported that in order to strengthen these operations, the Dominican Association of Rum Producers (ADOPRON), which was represented by its executive vice president, Aguie Lendor, will be donating methanol detection kits, a matter that in the same establishment where they are suspected beverages can be determined if they are fit for human consumption.
They said that these actions obey the guidelines of President Abinader, who is concerned about the health and well-being of the Dominican people.
Vice Minister Pérez Fermín speaks
The Vice Minister of Internal Trade for Industry, Commerce and MSMEs, Ramón Pérez Fermín, stated that the Government continues to persecute the illicit sale of counterfeit alcoholic beverages and that the law will be enforced against those who ruthlessly and inhumanely market this type of product that affects the health of all Dominicans.
He called on the population to take precautions in this Holy Week holiday, remembering that “Semana Mayor ends and life goes on.”
