29 April 2008, Makati City – Street stalls in Quiapo were identified as notorious markets for selling counterfeit and pirated merchandise, according to the 2008 Special 301 Report of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Quiapo, a district of Manila, is known as the haven for pirated optical discs such as digital versatile discs (DVD) and video compact discs (VCD) for movies, and regular compact discs for music. The Philippines maintained status quo standing in the report, remaining on the ordinary watch list for the third consecutive year with 35 other countries.

“The national government will continue to seek the active participation of local government units in its piracy campaign. Counterfeiting damages legitimate businesses that sustain local economies through taxes and employment,” Atty. Adrian S. Cristobal, Jr., Director General of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines), said.   

Developed countries such as Canada, Greece, Italy, Republic of Korea, and Spain are on the 2008 ordinary watch list. Developing countries, like the Philippines, are also named on the same list. These are Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

“The Philippines should also strengthen the Optical Media Board and provide it with adequate resources to expand and improve the effectiveness of its activities,” the report stated. “The United States will continue to work with the Philippine Government under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to strengthen the Philippines IPR regime,” it continued.

Based on industry reports, the US government raised concerns on the following: book piracy, illegal downloads using mobile devices, piracy on the Internet, and the illegal camcording of films in theaters. It also stated that the Philippines should pursue final determinations in outstanding IPR cases, including those related to cable piracy, with imposition and implementation of deterrent-level penalties.

“The Special 301 Report of the USTR puts forward several legitimate issues that affect Filipino and foreign artists, innovators, producers and businessmen. The Philippine government will definitely act vigorously to address them in the Action Plan 2008 to 2009 of the National Committee on IPR (NCIPR),” Cristobal said. IP Philippines is the lead coordinating agency of the NCIPR.

“With proper respect for its independence, we shall also continue engaging the judiciary to support our call to move intellectual property rights cases more efficiently in the courts,” Cristobal added.    
 
OMB forms part of the enforcement agencies of the NCIPR, which includes the Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Bureau of Customs (BoC), and the Department of Justice (DoJ). Enforcement operations for 2007 yielded close to P3 billion worth of pirated items, higher by P497 million for the combined totals of 2005 and 2006 enforcement figures. OMB contributed P1.12 billion to the 2007 total enforcement haul following BoC's P1.15 billion.  

Effective enforcement is one of the seven strategic components of the NCIPR Action Plan for 2007 to 2008. The action plan was based on the memorandum issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006. In the area of enforcement, the Presidential directive is to, “Intensify regular and effective (A) raids and “spot” inspections on factories that produce illegal optical discs, trademarked and copyrighted goods, (B) seizure and destruction of pirated and counterfeited goods and equipment used to produce them, and (C) arrests and prosecutions leading to deterrent level sentences served.”

Apart from effective enforcement and judicial reforms, adjudication and alternatives, the other components of the action plan are public information and education; copyright protection; policy and legislation and; inter-agency work and public-private partnerships.