Wanted: consumerism

PINOY KASI


Wanted: consumerism
By Michael Tan
Inquirer

Last updated 09:09pm (Mla time) 01/09/2007

AFTER I complained in last Friday's column about my "low-speed high-speed" Internet from PLDT, I got several calls from them promising quick action. Because I was out of the office attending meetings, my administrative assistant at UP was taking the calls and he texted me, expressing awe at how fast PLDT was acting, and wondering why the company couldn't do that for all consumers and not just columnists.

I explained to him that the large corporations do try to act quickly, many of them with a full staff complement working on "corporate communications," which is the new term for "public relations." PLDT even subcontracts public relations firms to handle particular product lines, so one of those who called me explained she could only handle the DSL service, but not WeRoam, another PLDT Internet product.

KMPI, CACP
But public relations is public relations, and I often find myself wondering why we don't have a stronger consumer movement that can help us make the right choices in the first place. It'd have been useful, for example, if there were independent evaluations of Internet service providers, comparing stuff like actual connection speeds, quality of servicing, pricing.

Back in the 1980s, my work in a health NGO included lobbying with government for cheaper and safer medicines. Because of that work, I eventually came in contact with the International Organization of Consumer Unions (now renamed Consumers International or CI), an umbrella group of consumer organizations around the world. CI was based in Malaysia at that time and their staff were always complimenting us Filipinos for our anti-dictatorship "people power" and our strong NGOs; yet, they noted that our consumer organizations were anemic compared with other countries.

Since then, I think the consumer movement has weakened even more. In the 1970s, we had a Kilusan ng mga Mamimili sa Pilipinas, Ink. (KMPI), which even produced a magazine, Ang Mamimili, that evaluated consumer goods. In the tradition of the United States' Consumer Reports, KMPI did not accept sponsorship from any corporation and paid for all the products they evaluated. I never forgot the first issue of the magazine that I bought, which had a report comparing different brands of toilet paper, checking if they were indeed 2-ply and actually counting the number of sheets in each roll!

Another active group was the Citizens' Alliance for Consumer Protection (CACP), headed for many years by the feisty Raul Segovia, which worked closely with NGOs to tackle large companies. It was, for example, active on the issue of expensive medicines and worked with the breastfeeding support groups, exposing the way companies were pushing infant formulas in hospitals.

Back then, I told our Malaysian friends we were still a poor country and that eventually, with a larger middle class, we'd probably have more of consumer consciousness. I was wrong. The middle class has grown but not consumer activism. These days, I don't hear of KMPI and CACP. I had to do some searching in the Internet and finally found out that KMPI is still around, headed by retired Commodore Ismael Aparri, but it doesn't have a magazine and has to depend on the press for exposes. The commodore recently exposed an attempt to smuggle in pork from China.

The Inquirer has our consumer crusader Marietta Giron, whose column features complaints from readers about everything from billing errors to shoddy products. What Tita Marietta does is to call the attention of the companies, and they often respond, but I've noticed how some of the the complaints keep recurring, with the same companies going into their OPM (Oh Promise Me) routines to reform.

Conflict of interest
There are some groups that claim to be consumers' organizations, but many years ago I was warned by CI that these were not internationally recognized. These groups have gained notoriety for giving out awards to corporations supposedly for product excellence, when in reality, they give the rewards in exchange for a "donation" from these companies. The companies then come out with advertisements claiming all of these consumer awards, in effect deceiving the public.

Even worse, mass media have often become captives of the corporations. There are magazines that feature, glossy page after glossy page, glowing descriptions of electronic products, with almost no complaints except, maybe, for the lack of color variations. Again, consumers are often unaware that these products were provided to the writers for free by the companies.

Genuine consumer advocates are vigilant about any possible conflict of interest. This means paying for any product or service to be evaluated. That includes, for example, restaurants. I was pleased to find one Internet site, stefoodie.net, that had ratings of Filipino restaurants, with our gourmet reviewer clearly stating that she pays for all the meals in the featured restaurants. The Philippine Daily Inquirer is currently reviewing its code of ethics, and I hope we require disclosure on the part of writers, for example, stating that they were given a complimentary meal in the restaurant they're writing about, or that the owner of a particular shop was a cousin.

Consumerism
There are many reasons why we haven't developed a consumer movement but, maybe, an important one is that we have been too busy with politics, first getting rid of Marcos and now dealing with the corrupted, corrupting and corruptible in government. The militant organizations also tended to keep a distance from consumer groups because "consumerism" carried negative connotations of capitalism and materialism. I remember one activist telling me, "You're dreaming if you believe you'll ever get a good buy; capitalism is built only on profits."

I'd actually appeal to that profit motive. A strong consumer movement can put enough pressure on business people so they'll see that they lose out if they continue to produce substandard products, or if they have bad service. Simply publicizing the gaffes and the rip-offs scares some companies because it can drive away other potential customers.

Business people have to be reminded that they're consumers too. Jose Concepcion Jr. and his monitoring of petroleum product prices is a good example of how business people can sometimes work in behalf of the public.

Ultimately though, consumer movements have to be supported by the consumers themselves. Ralph Nader's consumer organization was built out of members' dues and sales of their magazine Consumer Reports. Until that happens here, we'll just have to fight for our rights as individuals and teach ourselves--and the next generation of Filipinos--how to see through all the gimmicks of those slick ads and promotional materials, and about their rights as consumers.