Beverly Hills 6750, a local high-end aesthetic and cosmetic surgery clinic, has come under a cloud since December 2007.
First, there was the word war between the clinic's then president, David Bunevacz, and its group of investors, which ended in a media war plus charges and countercharges in court.
Then followed the exposé that the clinic, which was launched on the power of being the only affiliate outside the United States of America of the "famous Beverly Hills Surgical Institute," may have misrepresented itself because, in fact, there is no such U.S.-based Institute.
PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal), which broke both stories, made several attempts to get Beverly Hills 6750's side, through email and phone calls, as early as December 2007.
The most pressing issue for the clinic was: Why did it sell itself as an affiliate of a non-existent U.S. surgical institute? Its entire marketing strategy, its media pronouncements, and even its own website harked to its connections with the Beverly Hills Surgical Institute, which was supposed to be "favored by the rich and famous in Hollywood."
Yet PEP's own investigation showed that the Institute had stopped being a big company in 1999, and had in fact totally closed down by early 2006. How did Beverly Hills 6750 explain the fact that when it was launched in the Philippines in late 2006, it was still laying claim to being an affiliate?
Click this LINK to read SPECIAL REPORT (PART I): Beverly Hills 6750's U.S. partner clinic no longer in operation.
Unfortunately, the clinic's management studiously evaded our repeated requests for either an interview or a statement, or both.
Then on February 4, 2008, or more than two months after PEP began asking for an interview with Beverly Hills 6750, the clinic's general manager, Suzette Hahn-Lopez, called PEP. The message was that the clinic now wanted to talk.
Four days later, on February 8, PEP editor-in-chief Jo-Ann Maglipon and managing editor Karen Pagsolingan went to the Beverly Hills 6750 office in Ayala 6750, Makati City, to meet with the clinic's representatives: managing director Dr. Eduardo "Ed" Santos, cosmetic gynecologist Dr. Abe Marinduque, and general manager Suzette Hahn-Lopez.
In the three-hour interview, the clinic representatives admitted that they had indeed avoided all calls from PEP.
Dr. Santos, who used to be the clinic's medical director, also admitted that they had not been prepared to give a statement at the time. He said they felt ready to speak only after they had put together their legal case against David Bunevacz.
"You know, that's entertainment," Dr. Santos explained. "That's their [the couple David and Jessica Bunevacz] playing field. We don't want to be drawn into that playing field. And since we're a professional organization, we want to respond in a professional manner. And that professional manner is legal.
"Since we filed our first case [against the couple] about last week [February 1], that was the time we felt we can come out. Because our response is legal, and we're filing a second case on Monday [February 11]."
