(NAR) VOL. 26 NO. 3/ JULY - SEPTEMBER 2015
1.1 | Establish harmonized protocols in the approval and surveillance of OCB based on relevant ISO standards and other applicable and relevant international standards; and |
1.2 | Revise the previous guidelines on the official accreditation of OCB that would be applicable to both local and international. |
2.1 | Unprocessed plant produce – primary and post-harvest agriculture products of plant origin intended for food; |
2.2 | Live animals or unprocessed animal produce – primary and post-harvest agriculture products of animal origin intended for food; |
2.3 | Processed agricultural and fishery products for use as food – processed and prepackaged products intended for food; |
2.4 | Aquaculture – primary and post-harvest fishery products intended for food; and |
2.5 | Inputs – organic materials allowed for organic agriculture production and processing such as seeds, plant propagation materials, plant protection and pest management agents, compost and fertilizers, feeds, processing aids, which are used to comply with the requirements of applicable PNS OA. |
1.1 | Accreditation – refers to the formal recognition by an independent body, generally known as an accreditation body, that a certification body is capable of carrying out certification. | |
1.1.1 | Official Accreditation – refers to the procedure by which DA- BAFS having jurisdiction over OCB formally recognizes the competence of an inspection and/or certification body to provide inspection and certification services. Official Accreditation is issued by the DA-BAFS. | |
1.2 | Appeal – refers to the request by the applicant for reconsideration of any adverse[3] decision by the DA-BAFS related to its desired official accreditation status. | |
1.3 | Applicant – refers to the OCB applying for Official Accreditation with the DA-BAFS | |
1.4 | Assessment Team – refers to the team organized by the DA-BAFS responsible for the conduct of witness audits. It shall be composed of not more than five (5) members of which two (2) are personnel from the DA- BAFS Accreditation Section and at least one (1) competent member from the National Committee for Official Accreditation of Organic Certifying Bodies (NCOA-OCB). | |
1.5 | Audit – refers to the systematic and functionally independent examination to determine whether activities and related results comply with prescribed protocols, standards, rules and regulations and laws. | |
1.5.1 | Office Audit – refers to an audit relative to the thorough examination and verification of documentation and records of the OCB in the office where critical processes are being carried out. | |
1.5.2 | Witness Audit – refers to an audit relative to field observation of the OCB carrying out inspection within its scope of accreditation. | |
1.6 | Certification – refers to the procedure by which OCB provides written attestation that food or inputs or food control systems conform to applicable organic agriculture standards and requirements. Certification may be, as appropriate, based on a range of inspection activities, which may include, but not limited to, continuous inspection, auditing of quality assurance systems, and examination of finished products. | |
1.7 | Complaint – refers to the expression of dissatisfaction by any person or organization to the officially accredited OCB relating to its activities/ operations. | |
1.8 | Consultancy – refers to the participation/engagement of OCB or personnel of OCB in activities that involves the designing, manufacturing, installing, maintaining or distributing of a product, process, and/or service certified and to be certified. | |
1.9 | Group Certification – refers to the certification of an organized group of producers with: (1) a central office; (2) similar farming and production system; (3) working according to a common internal control system, which is established and subject to continued surveillance by the central office. Group certification applies to the group as a whole. Certificate shall be issued to the central office of the group but cannot be used by individual member of such group. | |
1.10 | Infringement – refers to the encroachment, breach, or violation of law, regulation, or contract. | |
1.11 | Inspection– refers to the examination of food or systems for control of food, raw materials, processing, and distribution including in-process and finished product testing, in order to verify that they conform to the requirements. For organic food, inspection includes the examination of the production and processing system. | |
1.12 | ISO/IEC 17065:2012 – refers to the Conformity assessment -- Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services. The same is composed of the international standards to be complied with by the OCB to be required by the DTI-PAB. | |
1.13 | National Committee for the Official Accreditation of Organic Certifying Bodies (NCOA-OCB) refers to the multi-sectoral committee created under S.O. No. 95 s. 2013, as amended by S.O. 318 s. 2014, renamed and further amended by S.O. No. 308 s. 2015, which evaluates and approves the official accreditation of OCB. | |
1.14 | Official Accreditation Evaluation Panel (OAEP) – refers to the body responsible for the review and evaluation of the results of witness audits and recommendation for approval or denial of application. The DA-BAFS Accreditation Section shall identify and convene three members of the NCOA-OCB as the OAEP. | |
1.15 | Organic Agriculture Validation Team (OAVT) – refers to the team of experts and representatives from various DA regulatory agencies and concerned offices organized by the DA-BAFS responsible for the pre-registration validation, monitoring of licensed and registered organic farms and establishments, and post-market surveillance in market outlets. | |
1.16 | Organic Certifying Body (OCB) – refers to a body responsible for verifying that a product sold or labeled as “organic” is produced, processed, prepared, handled and imported according to the prescribed guidelines. | |
1.17 | Organic Operator – refers to an individual or a business enterprise that is responsible for ensuring that production, processing, manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, retail, trade, importation and/or exportation of organic agriculture products meets, and continues to meet, the organic standard on which certification is based. | |
1.18 | Post-market Surveillance – refers to the activities, after market authorization has been issued, relating to safety and quality monitoring of organic primary and postharvest food and non-food products. This shall also include, among others, adverse events reporting, product safety update reporting, collection and testing of products in the market. | |
1.19 | Revocation – refers to the complete annulment or withdrawal of the granted official accreditation certificate. | |
1.20 | Satellite Office – refers to an office in a different island (Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao) from the main office, established to serve as a supporting unit of the OCB in the conduct of its operational activities. | |
1.21 | Suspension – refers to the temporary invalidation of the granted official accreditation certificate. During the suspension period, an OCB cannot issue new certificates. | |
1.22 | Surveillance – refers to the set of activities including witness and office audits, except reassessment, to monitor the continued fulfillment by the officially accredited OCB of the requirements for accreditation. |
1.1 | Must be duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as legal entity in the Philippines; |
1.2 | Must have a Head Office in the Philippines and, preferably, at least one (1) satellite office located in Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao; |
1.3 | Must comply with the provisions of PNS relevant to organic agriculture; and |
1.4 | Must be accredited to ISO/IEC 17065-2012 with the scope of Organic Agriculture. |
1.1 | Submission of Requirements – The OCB shall submit the duly accomplished form (BAFS-AS-001) and its corresponding attachments. In case the applicant has no accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065:2012, the DA- BAFS shall officially endorse the submitted requirements to the DTI-PAB. |
1.2 | Application Review – The Accreditation Section of the Organic Agriculture Division of DA-BAFS shall initially review the submitted documents. The DA-BAFS and at least one (1) member of the NCOA-OCB shall validate the review of application done by DA-BAFS Accreditation Section. This includes validation of submitted ISO/IEC 17065:2012 accreditation certificate and the physical presence of the applicant’s declared office/s. |
1.3 | Assessment (Witness Audits) – The DA-BAFS shall carry out the Witness Audits to determine the compliance with the official accreditation criteria. However, for cases where the applicant has applied for accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065:2012 to DTI-PAB, the DTl-PAB and the DA-BAFS shall jointly conduct witness audits. Otherwise, DA-BAFS shall conduct separate witness audits aside from those conducted by their Accreditation Body for ISO. |
1.4 | Evaluation of the Assessment Report – The witness audit report shall be endorsed to the OAEP for review and evaluation and then submit to the NCOA-OCB and DA-BAFS Director for approval or denial of official accreditation. |
1.5 | Approval of the Official Accreditation – The DA-BAFS Director shall issue the Official Accreditation to the OCB. |
1.6 | Surveillance – When officially accredited, the OCB shall be subjected to surveillance assessments to ensure the OCB’s continued compliance with the terms and conditions of the Official Accreditation Certificate. This is done every year after the grant of Official Accreditation. |
2.1 | Organizational Profile; |
2.2 | Certified True Copy of the SEC Certificate of Registration together with the Articles of Incorporation; |
2.3 | Certified True Copy of General information Sheet (GIS) by the SEC; |
2.4 | Certified True Copy of lSO/IEC 17065:2012 Accreditation Certificate; |
2.5 | Copy of Quality Manual including Internal Standards on Organic Agriculture; |
2.6 | Certified True Copy of Audited financial statements duly stamped as received by the BIR for the last 3 consecutive years, if applicable; |
2.7 | List of Inspectors with their approved scope/s; |
2.8 | List of certified organic operators compliant with the PNS for organic agriculture; |
2.9 | If applicable, list of certified organic operators compliant with other organic standards; and |
2.10 | For international OCB, equivalence assessment of the private standards against the PNS-OA (guidance manual for using the equivalence assessment tool is found in Annex B). |
4.1 | The officially accredited OCB will receive a written notice stating that its official accreditation has been suspended or revoked. The notice will generally contain the following elements: | |
4.1.1 | Notification that the OCB must stop using the official accreditation rights and privileges and the ‘Organic’ mark immediately. | |
4.1.2 | Notification that the OCB has the right to pursue an appeal for reconsideration as stated in Article X of this Circular. Notification that, if official accreditation lapses, in order to have official accreditation reconsidered, the applicant must complete the application process used by those seeking initial official accreditation. | |
4.2 | In cases of revocation, the DA-BAFS shall remove the OCB’s name from all the published list of officially accredited OCB and shall immediately terminate the Statement of Agreement between the DA-BAFS and the OCB. |
1.1 | In cases of complaints regarding officially accredited OCB, the following procedures shall apply: | |
1.1.1 | Complaints regarding the functioning of an officially accredited OCB shall, in the first instance, be directed to the OCB in question. | |
1.1.2 | If the complaint was not acted upon within 15 days or if the complainant feels the complaint has not been handled satisfactorily by the OCB, it shall then lodge a complaint with the DA-BAFS. Confidentiality regarding the source of such a complaint is maintained whenever possible. | |
1.1.3 | The DA-BAFS shall investigate the complaint. | |
1.1.4 | Where the DA-BAFS considers the complaint to be sufficiently substantiated, it shall notify the OCB concerned and shall require a written explanation within 15 days. | |
1.1.5 | If the DA-BAFS finds the explanation unsatisfactory, it shall refer the matter to the NCOA-OCB for appropriate action. |
2.1 | Denial of Issuance of Official Accreditation of OCB | |
2.1.1 | When an application has been given a 'denied’ status and after taking into consideration the recommendations of the OAEP, the applicant may appeal for reconsideration by sending a formal communication to the DA-BAFS, within fifteen (15) working days upon receipt of the notification of denial, signifying either the strategies to address the areas of concern or actions done to correct the situation. | |
2.1.2 | The NCOA-OCB and the DA-BAFS shall determine the acceptability of the remedial actions. | |
2.1.3 | The assessment team shall be sent to re-assess their compliance/s within fifteen (15) working days upon receipt of the corrective action plan and evidences of implementation of the OCB, subject to the availability of the assessment team. | |
2.1.4 | The NCOA-OCB shall review, evaluate, and decide on the assessment report for recommendation to the NCOA-OCB for proper action. | |
2.1.5 | If the NCOA-OCB decides that reconsideration is not warranted, the request for reconsideration will be denied with a statement of reasons and a reiteration of the DCB’s right to pursue its application one (1) month after the denied request for reconsideration. | |
2.1.6 | If, following reconsideration, the NCOA-OCB, upon unanimous vote, decides that the OCB is correct in its claim of such error leading to an erroneous conclusion by the NCOA-OCB’s, the DA- BAFS may overturn the denial decision and proceed with the granting of official accreditation. | |
2.2 | Suspension/Revocation of the Official Accreditation Certificate | |
2.2.1 | An Officially Accredited OCB that has received a notice of suspension/revocation of Official Accreditation may be a candidate for reconsideration if it can demonstrate that there were major documented errors of fact in the information used by the DA-BAFS and NCOA-OCB in arriving at the suspension/revocation decision. | |
2.2.2 | In such cases, the OCB must submit a written request for reconsideration to the DA-BAFS Director within thirty (30) working days from receipt of the notification of the suspension/revocation decision. | |
2.2.3 | This request must be accompanied by three (3) original copies of the report specifying the major documented errors of fact and how such errors contributed to the suspension/revocation decision, together with substantiating documentation. | |
2.2.4 | The suspension/revocation decision made due to the suspended/ revoked status of the accreditation to ISO/IEC 17065:2012 shall automatically disqualify the OCB for reconsideration. | |
2.2.5 | The DA-BAFS shall accept or deny the OCB’s request for reconsideration of the suspension/revocation decision within fifteen (15) working days from receipt of the request. The action will be based solely on the report and the supporting documentation submitted by the OCB in accordance with the nature of the deficiencies that led to the suspension/revocation decision. | |
2.2.6 | lf the DA-BAFS and NCOA-OCB decides that reconsideration is not warranted, the request for reconsideration will be denied with a statement of reasons and a reiteration of the OCB’s right to pursue an appeal for reconsideration. | |
2.2.7 | When the DA-BAFS granted reconsideration, the OCB shall be deemed to have waived its right to appeal either the original suspension/revocation decision or the action that will result from the reconsideration. | |
2.2.8 | If, following reconsideration, the NCOA-OCB, upon unanimous vote, decides that the OCB is correct in its claim of such error leading to an erroneous conclusion by the NCOA-OCB, the DA- BAFS may overturn the suspension/revocation decision and grant official accreditation. | |
2.2.9 | The new official accreditation action must be decided by unanimous vote of the NCOA-OCB. |
3.1 | Name, address and telephone number of the applicant; |
3.2 | Date of approval of the official accreditation; |
3.3 | Any information to comply with a court order; and |
3.4 | Any information to comply with a request from the NCOA-OCB, investigating an alleged complaint. |