To counter the mounting pressure
that US officials and businessmen
To counter the mounting pressure
that US officials and businessmen exert against breastfeeding advocates and
Philippine health officials to prevent them from strictly implementing the laws
that protect breastfeeding, the initiator of this petition-signing helped organized
two simultaneous breastfeeding Guinness World Records in single and multiple
sites in the Philippines, synchronized breastfeeding worldwide, initiated
Senate and Congress hearings in her country and many other advocacy events.
The campaign caught the attention
of Wyeth insiders who provided her proofs of an anomalous sale of contaminated
formula milk last May 2007. We humbly ask your help to circulate this petition among
your network to help us seek justice for Filipino mothers and children. Please
sign the petition online at http://www.petitiononline.com/ProBF2/petition.html
Nona D. Andaya-Castillo, IBCLC
Director, Nurturers of the Earth
Philippine Lactation Resource and Training Center
TESDA Women’s Center, Taguig City, Metro Manila, Philippines
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To:
The US Department of Justice
The US Senate
The People of the United States of America
Investigate the sale of four million cans of contaminated Wyeth formula
milk in the Philippines!
Every year, the World Health Organization Philippines
estimate that at least 16,000 Filipino children die because they were denied of
their right to be breastfed. Those who survive the milk menace suffer from many
illnesses associated with formula-feeding. Many times, mothers or caregivers
would automatically be blamed for the deaths and illnesses due to “improper or
unsanitary” preparation. The truth is, even if they were prepared under
sanitary conditions, the milk itself may not be safe or sterile.
A case in point is an expose that the
petition author did last May 2007, when she submitted a report about the sale
of at least 4 million cans of contaminated Wyeth formula milk to the Philippine
Department of Health (DOH). The Wyeth whistleblowers sent her the documents through
email after they have closely followed their successful advocacy on
breastfeeding. The report contained an office memo and a detailed account of
the lot numbers and the supermarkets where the contaminated formula milk were
delivered and sold, thus putting the Filipino children at a great risk.
The Wyeth whistleblowers recounted to the petition
author that the accident occurred during the rainy season of 2006 when infant
formula products were exposed to the elements in the Wyeth warehouse and
developed “leaks, molds, rust, discoloration and staining,” a sign that
microbes might have already invaded the stock. Wyeth discovered it only
after releasing millions of pesos worth of such products to the distributors
and the buying public. Instead of informing the Bureau of Food and Drug
(BFAD) and issuing a public warning as our Philippines laws required, Wyeth
deliberately concealed the information and tried to retrieve the products from
their distributors as quietly and as secretively as possible.
It took the BFAD a few more weeks to verify
the authenticity of the documents that she submitted before they issued an
order to Wyeth to recall their products. The BFAD required Wyeth Philippines to
publish the lot numbers in two leading newspapers that encouraged consumers to
return the affected products to Wyeth. This is nearly impossible because the
accident happened more than a year after the public announcement was published
and most if not all of the affected stocks were already consumed at the time of
the announcement.
Aside from losing huge profits, Wyeth has
another reason to withhold the information from the BFAD. At that time, milk companies including Wyeth demanded
a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) before the Philippine Supreme Court to halt
the implementation of a set of implementing rules and regulations issued by the
DOH to strengthen our laws that protect breastfeeding. Their admission of the
industrial accident would have surely jeopardized their case before the Supreme
Court. Eventually, the Supreme Court decided in favor of the DOH and the
breastfeeding advocates but it is almost two years now and nobody was
apprehended or punished for this heinous act and we even received the news that
Mr. Perpetuo de Claro, the Wyeth Philippines’ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at
that time this tragedy occurred, was reportedly promoted to a global position.
We respectfully call on the US DOJ and the
US Senate to investigate this matter for a possible violation of the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act and other US laws that will punish the perpetrators and to
assist possible victims of the contaminated products.
We humbly ask the US DOJ and the US Senate to
investigate the following Wyeth officials to ferret out the truth:
·
Mr. Perpetuo de Claro,
CEO Wyeth Philippines
·
Mr. Luis Achacoso, Supply
Chain Director
·
Mr. Ike Avenido, officer-in-charge
of the warehouse
·
Brenda Cielo, Trade Marketing
Department
·
Dr. Nerissa Calimon,
Company Medical Director
·
Mr. Andrew Santos, Wyeth’s Vice President of Sales
& Marketing
·
Wyeth distributors
We call on the American people to boycott
Wyeth products until this matter is fully settled by the US DOJ and the US
Senate. We call on American civil societies to assist us in securing justice
for our children.
For more details of the case please visit
the links below:
·
World Alliance for
Breastfeeding Action:
http://www.waba.org.my/news/wyeth.htm
·
Associated Press
http://www.ap-foodtechnology.com/news/ng.asp?n=77759-wyeth-infant-formula-recall
·
Boston.com
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/06/20/breast_feeding_debate_in_philippines/
·
Philippine Daily
Inquirer
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view_article.php?article_id=72963
Nurturers of the Earth:
A support group for earth-friendly parenting, vegetarians and vegetarians-in-progress
Heal our bodies! Heal our earth!
The Breastfeeding Clinic:
Your Partner from Pregnancy to Parenting
(Managed by two International Board Certified Lactation Consultants)
Nona D. Andaya-Castillo, IBCLC
Elvira L. Henares-Esguerra, MD, FPDS, RPh, IBCLC
Tel: 632-889-1105
Mobile: 63-919-839-5555
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