Senator Rafael “Raffy” Tulfo has filed a bill seeking to legalize the selling of “used clothing and rags” (ukay-ukay) through a repeal of a current law prohibiting their importation.

Through Senate Bill No. 1778, Sen. Rafael ‘’Raffy’’ T. Tulfo hopes to ensure that the P18-billion industry would no longer be an underground enterprise as the bill seeks to make “ukay-ukay” businesses duly registered and its revenues audited for accountability by the proper government agencies.

Tulfo’s bill identified “ukay-ukay" as a type of retail business that deals with selling second-hand clothes, bags, shoes and other accessories at a cheaper price.

“The emergence of the Ukay-Ukay business started in the early 1980s in Baguio. Due to the frequency of natural calamities in the country. Salvation Army distributed imported second hand goods to victims of the calamities as a form of humanitarian assistance,” Tulfo said in the explanatory note of the bill.

The senator said goods were accumulated and bought in bulk by traders who sold the same to the public at cheap prices. The business initially catered to the low-income populace, he also noted.

“Due to the heightened popularity of the business, high - income earners started to patronize it. However, the commercial importation of second hand clothing to the Philippines has been prohibited since 1966 under the Republic Act No. 4653,” he noted.

The said law, he said, was enacted to safeguard the health of the Filipino people and maintain the dignity of the nation through the prohibition of the importation of textile articles commonly known as used clothing and rags. Because of this, he said the “ukay-ukay” business is deemed illegal.

“Nonetheless, there has been a proliferation of the ‘ukay-ukay’ business on account of ineffective implementation of the applicable law banning the same. Consequently, there is an urgent need to repeal the law relative to the sale of imported used clothing by ‘ukay-ukay’ stores,” he noted.

Furthermor, he said the industry has evolved as part of the Filipino culture. “It goes without saying that the revenue-generating industry has generated jobs for our fellow Filipinos,” Tulfo stressed.

“However, it must be regulated by the proper government agencies to ensure its compliance with applicable laws. This bill seeks to legalize and regulate the importation of second-hand clothes used clothing and other goods, repealing Republic Act (RA) 4653,” the lawmaker emphasized.