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Spilled corporate milk in the Philippines
By Cher S Jimenez
companies' argument that they would stand to lose P10 billion (US$222 million)
if the RIRR were immediately implemented and that this would force them to
reduce their in-country workforces.
Soon thereafter, Arroyo conspicuously failed to make her regular speech in
observance of World Breast-Feeding Day, which in previous years she had
publicly celebrated in the presidential palace and invited UN representatives
and officials from the Health
Department. This year, two big Western milk companies were granted government
permission to establish new infant-formula manufacturing plants in the
Philippines, a decision Health Department Undersecretary Padilla referred to as
"schizophrenic".
Legal questions over the constitutionality of the RIRR's restrictions on
advertising are now being weighed by the Supreme Court, in a landmark case that
will adjudicate between public-health and commercial rights in the country.
UNICEF and the WHO recently indicated that the court's decision could set an
important precedent for how milk companies are allowed to promote their
products in other countries in the region.
At the same time, the Philippine government is carefully monitoring the case
because several of the plaintiff multinational milk companies - particularly
those that belong to PHAP - are also big pharmaceutical producers that work
directly with the Health Department on medicine-access issues. Philippine
officials have no doubt noted with caution the recent fracas in Thailand, where
the military government decided to produce generic versions of antiretroviral
AIDS drugs patented by US companies and Washington, tit for tat, imposed trade
sanctions on a range of Thai export products.
Lawyers in the crossfire
Those monitoring the case say the proceedings have been riddled with
irregularities - though it's unclear on whose behalf. Nestor Ballacillo, a
lawyer retained by the Health Department to argue its case, was mysteriously
gunned down with his son in Manila in December before he could testify. A
second legal representative, Jose Bernas, retained as a consultant by UNICEF
and WHO for the case, was nearly shot to death in his Manila offices by three
assailants posing as journalists who briefly took a secretary hostage,
according to a UNICEF representative in Bangkok.
Meanwhile, multinational milk companies have launched an aggressive lobbying
effort to up-end the RIRR, aimed at persuading the Philippine government of
their trade rights and undermining the credibility of UNICEF's and the WHO's
country representatives in the Philippines. The International Formula Council
(IFC), a lobbying organization of milk companies composed of multinational
firms such as Nestle USA, Abbott, Wyeth, and Mead Johnson, wrote a strongly
worded letter to the UNICEF regional office in Bangkok last year complaining
about the performance of Nicholas Alipui, UNICEF's country representative to
the Philippines.
Alipui, a vocal critic of milk companies' advertising campaigns, including
certain company claims that infant formula enhances newborns' intelligence
quotient (IQ), was criticized by the IFC for giving what they alleged were
"unscientific" remarks to the media and contended that he was "not competent"
to look after the welfare of Filipino children. The letter also criticized the
WHO's country representative at the time, Jean Marc Olive, for his public
statements on the issue.
In an interview, Alipui took strong issue with the lobby group's allegations.
"I [now] realize the enormity of the challenge that we're facing and how big
the opposition from the milk companies is going to be," he said. "I think the
fact that they are able to penetrate [UN] organizations to the point of trying
to undermine representatives is an indication that they feel that they have
enough influence to challenge individuals who represent [these organizations]
in their respective countries," Alipui said.
While the case is still in court, breast-feeding advocates have scored some
public relations points against the PHAP, including through a recent publicity
stunt to break the Guinness Book of World Records mark for the highest number
of mothers breast-feeding simultaneously.
UN agencies and local breast-feeding advocates, meanwhile, are bidding to
expose multinational milk companies' lobbying efforts toward the Philippine
government. Days before the scheduled oral arguments between PHAP and the
Health Department in the Supreme Court, UNICEF released a 30-minute documentary
showing how poor Filipino mothers are frequently enticed by milk advertisements
and how companies influence hospitals and village clinics to promote their
products.
On May 25, Nestle Philippines Inc, a sister company of Nestle USA that is also
a member of the IFC, wrote a letter to Alipui to protest the UNICEF
documentary, which it alleged was "inadvertently slanted in a manner that
showed our company in a bad light". At the same time, the complaint, signed by
D Nandkishore, the firm's chairman and chief executive officer, also lambasted
the advertisements of competitor milk firms dealing in infant formula, calling
them "exaggerated", especially "those that promise to give children increased
intelligence or even become gifted, for which there is no scientific basis".
Nestle, which it notes is not a member of PHAP, says it strictly adheres to
international and local marketing codes for infant formula and has offered to
engage UNICEF, the WHO and the Health Department in an "open and transparent
dialogue". However, indications are that the issue has transcended the time and
space for cordial negotiations and that only a court order will resolve the two
sides' differences.
Until then, it promises to be a hostile operating environment for corporate
milk companies. The Bureau of Food and Drugs, an agency under the the Health
Department, on the day of the Supreme Court arguments, revealed that about 2
million cans of Wyeth powdered-milk products had been recalled because they
were contaminated with mold and rust due to exposure to monsoon rains. Wyeth
has since insisted that it first alerted the bureau to the problem, and a
debate has ensued over whether the products are actually contaminated.
Cher S Jimenez is a Manila-based journalist with the BusinessMirror
newspaper. With additional reporting from Bangkok by Shawn W Crispin,
Asia Times Online's Southeast Asia Editor.
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