US firm faces charges for exploiting RP waters

A large multinational company is in hot water for setting up deep wells for its factory’s water needs and for allegedly misrepresenting its citizenship before water authorities.

Kimberly-Clark Philippines Inc., an American personal care product manufacturer, and its top executives have been charged before a Quezon City regional trial court for violating the Water Code of the Philippines, which reserves to Filipino citizens and corporations the right to exploit the country’s water resources.

In the charge sheet, Assistant Quezon City Prosecutor Raymond Jonathan Lledo accused Kimberly Clark and its responsible executives of violating Article 15 of the Water Code, which states that "only citizens of the Philippines... as well as juridical persons who are duly qualified to exploit and develop water resources may apply for water permits."

Article 19 of the same law also penalizes misrepresentations of citizenship in order to qualify for a water permit, Lledo said in the information.

Indicted were Kimberly-Clark president and chief executive officer Robert Tober, former president and chief operating officer Cornelio Peralta, corporate secretary Marino Abes and corporate treasurer Leonilo Alfonso.

Lledo recommended a bail of P24,000 for each of the six counts of alleged violation of the Water Code and, if the accused are found guilty, could mean six years’ imprisonment for each of them plus additional fines.

The case stemmed from a complaint filed by coed Mary Catherine Foronda, a resident of San Pedro, Laguna and secretary general of UP LIKHA, a student organization in the University of the Philippines established for the protection of the environment.

Foronda alleges that the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) granted six water permits to Kimberly Clark despite the fact that 87 percent of the firm’s shares were owned or held by foreigners.

According to Foronda, Kimberly-Clark has been drawing large volumes of water from six deep wells located within its manufacturing plant in San Pedro, Laguna since 1990.

As a foreign-owned corporation, Lledo claimed that Kimberly Clark is not entitled to exploit the country’s water resources since the Constitution reserves this right for Filipino citizens and corporations 60-percent owned by Filipino citizens.

Lledo said the company’s violations allegedly started in 1990 when Kimberly-Clark employee Domingo Gevaña (now deceased) filed six applications for water permits at the NWRB on behalf of Kimberly Clark. In all these applications, Kimberly-Clark was misrepresented as a Filipino domestic corporation.

While government prosecutors accepted the fact that it was Gevaña who committed the physical acts of misrepresentation, they stressed that Kimberly-Clark was the principal beneficiary.

Lledo also brushed aside claims by the accused that they had nothing to do with the alleged misrepresentations, saying it was Kimberly-Clark which authorized Gevaña to file the water permit applications, paid for the applications and which continues to draw water on the basis of the subsequent permits.