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[av_heading heading=’ P3M pirated CDs, DVDs seized ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY RUBY SILUBRICO
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
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ILOILO City – Antipiracy and police operatives seized P3 million worth of pirated compact discs (CDs) and digital video discs (DVDs) in the metro.
They swept stalls on Iznart, Ledesma, Delgado, Valeria, and JM Basa streets, and recovered around 22 sacks of CDs and DVDs.
No salesperson was arrested during the operation that started at around 4 p.m. on Dec. 1.
Senior Inspector Jose Val Ladublan, chief of Police Station 1, said no one present at the raided areas admitted to owning the pirated discs.
Optical Media Board (OMB) operatives led by Dean Perez spearheaded the operation.
Officers from Police Station 1 and the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Intelligence Division led by Superintendent Julius Balano assisted them.
After documentation, the seized items will be burned.
Police officers were “not authorized” to swoop down on vendors of pirated CDs and DVDs, said Ladublan. “OMB personnel just informed us about the operation and we helped them.”
Section 10 of the OMB Act of 2003 grants the agency the power to “conduct inspections, by itself or in coordination with other competent agencies of the government, at any time, with or without prior notice, of establishments or entities, including those within the economic zones, and employ reasonable force in the event that the responsible persons/person of such establishment or entity, obstructs, or refuses such inspection.”
Under the law, anyone found guilty of “mastering, manufacturing, replicating, importing, and exporting optical media without the necessary license from the OMB and doing so for commercial profit or pecuniary gain without authority or consent of the owner” may face imprisonment of at least three years and slapped with a fine of not less than P500,000.
The “unregulated mastering, manufacturing, importation, and exportation of optical media in all forms is inimical to economic growth and public interest,” stated Section 2 of the OMB Act.
“Toward this end, the State shall institute the means to regulate the manufacture, mastering, replication, importation, and exportation of optical media.”/PN
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