R65-M fake, pirated items destroyed
Astaggering R65 million worth of counterfeit and pirated bags, shoes, wallets, watches and other goods seized by the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) were destroyed at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Grandstand in Camp Crame, Quezon City Friday.
Lawyer Josephine Santiago, director-general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPO-Phil), said that the items were just part of the total R23.6 billion fake items that were seized by the NCIPR in 2018 – the largest amount confiscated by the Committee since its creation in 2008.
According to Santiago, the R23.6billion confiscation marked a 188percent increase as compared to the
R8.2-billion haul by the committee in 2017.
“This is just a drop in the ocean. Where do we get the valuation? The valuation of goods we report would be the market value in the formal economy, or the street value in the market place,” Santiago’s statement said. The statement was read by IPO-Phil Deputy Director General Teodoro Pascua.
For his part, Police Major General Elmo Francis Sarona, director of the Directorate for Investigation and Detection Management (PNP-DIDM), urged the public not to patronize counterfeit products as it harms the economic development of the country.
“May this destruction serve as a stern warning for the public not to patronize counterfeit and pirated products. We will be very bold in our campaign against piracy and counterfeiting. We will not allow IPR violators to continue their lawless activities,” said Sarona, who represented Police General Oscar Albayalde, PNP Chief, during the event.
“May this also serve as a reminder that purchasing counterfeit and pirated products will do no good and may even cause harmful effects to all of you. Let’s stop piracy and let’s stop patronizing counterfeit and pirated products,” he added.
Destroyed during the event were R16.1-million worth of wallets; R15.82million bags; R10.12-million shoes; R10-million cellphone back cases; R7.28-million cellphone cases; R2.42million notepad cases; R1.8-million watches; R1-million shirts; R370,000 worth of cigarettes; R280,000 belts; R150,000 money clips; R58,500 DVDs; and R50,000 cutting blades.
The NCIPR was created by Executive Order No. 736 signed in June 2008 to “coordinate interagency efforts to promote, protect and enforce intellectual property rights in the country.”
It is composed of 12 government agencies namely the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which serves as the chair of the NCIPR; the IPO-Phil, the vice-chair; and members PNP, Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Optical Media Board (OMB), National Book Development Board (NBDB), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of the Special Envoy on Transnational Crime (OSETC), and Bureau of Customs (BoC).
Counterfeit products are those items that are considered fake while pirated ones are those reproduced without the permission from the copyright owner.
Both are considered to violate the intellectual property rights of the copyright owners.
In the Philippine setting, Santiago bared that cigarettes (R20 billion) and alcohol (R3 million) took the lion’s share of the seized counterfeit and pirated products in 2018.
Pharmaceutical and personal care products came in second, amounting to R1.2 billion, she added.
The NCIPR – through the PNP, NBI, OMB and FDA – conducted 516 search warrants last year while the BOC issued 25 Letters of Authority (LoA) and five Alert Orders (AOs).
April is National Intellectual Property Rights month.