Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso led city government officials and police in destroying counterfeit medicines and personal care products from China at the Manila City Hall on Monday.Â

The said products were confiscated from two Binondo warehouses that were raided in November 2020.
The warehouses were raided after some of their products that had labels dubbing the City of Manila as a "province of China" went viral on social media.

Investigation showed that the lessors of the two warehouses, identified as Jerry Ong and Johnson Sy, failed to submit a business permit for wholesaler and occupational permits for service personnel, as well as a license to operate issued by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).
"Our city welcomes businesses, but they should acquire the proper permits needed to operate. Moreover, the products they are selling should not be counterfeit. The ones we confiscated included fake medicines and beauty products. Just imagine what harm that would do to the people who take or use them," Domagoso said in a statement.
"Just like the virus, those who sell fake medicines and beauty products are also endangering the lives of consumers. Our efforts to purge them from the city has not wavered. We cannot allow them to continue to dupe and put people at risk," he added.
The Manila mayor also reiterated his call for online shopping platforms to practice due diligence in ensuring that their platforms are free from counterfeit products and scammers after it was found that some of the confiscated beauty products were sold on Lazada and Shopee.
"These online shopping sites have invested more effort in protecting consumers, especially now that more people opt to buy things online," he said.
"They can't just allow scam artists to flourish on their sites. Otherwise, they become nothing more but glorified online hubs for scam artists," he added.