DTI Region 3 rebuts steel group’s graft allegation

An official of the Region 3 division of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has dismissed the graft allegations of the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute (PISI) against DTI Region 3’s Provincial Director Leonila Baluyut as “baseless, malicious and incriminating in nature.”

The rebuttal follows a news item the Manila Times published on Friday reporting that the PISI has filed a case with the Office of the Ombudsman in which it accused DTI officials—Ann Claire Cabochan, the director-in-charge of the DTI’s Bureau of Product Standards (BPS), and Leonila Baluyut, the DTI director in Zambales—of being “criminally liable” for granting “provisional” import commodity clearance (ICC) for deformed Chinese steel bars imported by the food company, Mannage Resources Trading Corp, without necessary permit.