Protecting breastfeeding calls for manufactured complementary foods to be marketed in ways that do not undermine exclusive and sustained breastfeeding beyond two years. Mothers in particular and the public in general, should be protected from unethical marketing practices of the milk companies which include false health and nutritional claims.
Our government being a signatory to the international agreement has the responsibility to implement the International Code and the Philippine laws that protect breastfeeding. Click here to read more about the laws.
Our Goals
What we have accomplished
Since 1997, Nona D. Andaya-Castillo had monitored the rampant violations of the laws that protect breastfeeding. When she and Dr. Elvira L. Henares-Esguerra initiated a Senate hearing in 2005, Dr. Henares-Esguerra sought the help of her father Hilarion “Larry” Henares, a Presidential Consultant on National Affairs who joined the team.
With his typical acerbic humor, he called the team “the Trinity of the Father, the Daughter and the Holy Skeleton” and brought the issue to the portals of power: two preparatory meetings with the National Anti-Poverty Commission and a Presidential Cabinet meeting that tackled Infant and Young Child Feeding and more Congress hearings.
During these hearings that the IBCLCs initiated, Henares Jr. exposed violations including the bribery of a free trip abroad to medical doctors who have prescribed formula-feeding to 365 babies. Henares also talked on the “Economic Consequences of the Loss of the Breastfeeding Culture” with more than US$ 400 million worth of milk and milk product imports putting a strain on the economy and averting the use of available indigenous foods.
The Trinity played a significant role in the drafting of the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of the National Code on the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and other Related Products otherwise known as Executive Order (EO) 51 and its launching in a grand ceremony during the celebration of World Breastfeeding Week in 2006.
The Trinity also rallied support from prominent national leaders, mobilizing legal luminaries (Ambassador to the UN, Justice Hilario Davide, International Jurist Raul Goco and other lawyers) to support the DOH to fight the lawsuit that milk companies filed against them. In cooperation with members of the Congress and Senate, the Trinity drafted the Bill on “Infant and Young Child Feeding Act”.
During the trial of the legal suit filed against the DOH by the milk companies, the lawyer that was handling the case was shot dead with his son and the lawyer that replaced him nearly lost his life when assassins fired at the door of his office. One of the evidence that was presented in the court was a document given to the Trinity by whistleblowers of a milk company. That document showed that the milk companies sold 4,000,000 cans of possibly contaminated milk. They made the expose also risking their lives.
Before that the milk companies hired a negotiator and offered 200 million to the Trinity. They turned them down because 16,000 Filipino children die EVERY YEAR because they were not breastfed.
In 2007, after issuing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) for one year, the Supreme Court upheld the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the National Code on the Marketing of Executive Order 51 and paved the way for the proper product labeling of non-human milk.
Currently, all packages of non-human milk are not allowed to depict anything that idealizes the use of that product in picture or text to avoid the disempowerment of mothers to breastfeed exclusively beyond 2 years of age. The following text are written in all labels:
FILIPINO:
Ang gatas ng ina ang pinakamabuti para sa bata hanggang 2 taon at higit pa.
Mahalagang Paalala: Walang anumang gatas ang pwedeng ipalit sa gatas ng ina.
ENGLISH:
Breastmilk is best for babies up to 2 years of age and beyond.
Important Notice: There is no substitute for breastmilk.
A WARNING ON THE POSSIBLE CONTAMINANTS IN NON-HUMAN MILK
There is likelihood that pathogenic microorganisms will be in this product when it is prepared and used inappropriately.
Ang produktong ito ay maaaring magkaroon ng mikrobyo na nagdudulot ng sakit kapag hindi tama ang paghahanda at paggamit.
Be a Monitor! Report Violations! Click Here to Register
Our government being a signatory to the international agreement has the responsibility to implement the International Code and the Philippine laws that protect breastfeeding. Click here to read more about the laws.
Our Goals
- To ensure the strict adherence of the healthcare system especially medical professionals to the laws that protect breastfeeding and in observing the international standard of ethics.
- To train advocates who will continuously monitor Code compliance of the laws by milk and babyfood companies, producers of bottles, teats and pacifiers so as not to undermine the Filipino parents’ decision to breastfeed.
What we have accomplished
Since 1997, Nona D. Andaya-Castillo had monitored the rampant violations of the laws that protect breastfeeding. When she and Dr. Elvira L. Henares-Esguerra initiated a Senate hearing in 2005, Dr. Henares-Esguerra sought the help of her father Hilarion “Larry” Henares, a Presidential Consultant on National Affairs who joined the team.
With his typical acerbic humor, he called the team “the Trinity of the Father, the Daughter and the Holy Skeleton” and brought the issue to the portals of power: two preparatory meetings with the National Anti-Poverty Commission and a Presidential Cabinet meeting that tackled Infant and Young Child Feeding and more Congress hearings.
During these hearings that the IBCLCs initiated, Henares Jr. exposed violations including the bribery of a free trip abroad to medical doctors who have prescribed formula-feeding to 365 babies. Henares also talked on the “Economic Consequences of the Loss of the Breastfeeding Culture” with more than US$ 400 million worth of milk and milk product imports putting a strain on the economy and averting the use of available indigenous foods.
The Trinity played a significant role in the drafting of the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of the National Code on the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and other Related Products otherwise known as Executive Order (EO) 51 and its launching in a grand ceremony during the celebration of World Breastfeeding Week in 2006.
The Trinity also rallied support from prominent national leaders, mobilizing legal luminaries (Ambassador to the UN, Justice Hilario Davide, International Jurist Raul Goco and other lawyers) to support the DOH to fight the lawsuit that milk companies filed against them. In cooperation with members of the Congress and Senate, the Trinity drafted the Bill on “Infant and Young Child Feeding Act”.
During the trial of the legal suit filed against the DOH by the milk companies, the lawyer that was handling the case was shot dead with his son and the lawyer that replaced him nearly lost his life when assassins fired at the door of his office. One of the evidence that was presented in the court was a document given to the Trinity by whistleblowers of a milk company. That document showed that the milk companies sold 4,000,000 cans of possibly contaminated milk. They made the expose also risking their lives.
Before that the milk companies hired a negotiator and offered 200 million to the Trinity. They turned them down because 16,000 Filipino children die EVERY YEAR because they were not breastfed.
In 2007, after issuing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) for one year, the Supreme Court upheld the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the National Code on the Marketing of Executive Order 51 and paved the way for the proper product labeling of non-human milk.
Currently, all packages of non-human milk are not allowed to depict anything that idealizes the use of that product in picture or text to avoid the disempowerment of mothers to breastfeed exclusively beyond 2 years of age. The following text are written in all labels:
FILIPINO:
Ang gatas ng ina ang pinakamabuti para sa bata hanggang 2 taon at higit pa.
Mahalagang Paalala: Walang anumang gatas ang pwedeng ipalit sa gatas ng ina.
ENGLISH:
Breastmilk is best for babies up to 2 years of age and beyond.
Important Notice: There is no substitute for breastmilk.
A WARNING ON THE POSSIBLE CONTAMINANTS IN NON-HUMAN MILK
There is likelihood that pathogenic microorganisms will be in this product when it is prepared and used inappropriately.
Ang produktong ito ay maaaring magkaroon ng mikrobyo na nagdudulot ng sakit kapag hindi tama ang paghahanda at paggamit.
Be a Monitor! Report Violations! Click Here to Register