Seized fake products crushed in Camp Crame

COUNTERFEIT goods give the Philippines bad reputation. ANALY LABOR

At least P11.8 million worth of fake merchandise were destroyed yesterday in Quezon City as part of the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights’ unrelenting drive against counterfeit goods.

Assistant Secretary Ernesto Perez of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Director General Josephine R. Santiago and Philippine National Police Director Elmo Francis Sarona witnessed the actual crushing of fake goods at the PNP Grandstand in Camp Crame.

Most of the fake goods destroyed using a heavy armored personnel carrier (APC) were pirated DVDs, vitamins and beauty products, medicines, oil spray, Louis Vuitton and Lacoste products.

Also present in the event was Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Officer-in-Charge Atty.

Vanessa Lagasco who said the destruction only showed the government’s determined effort to rid the Philippine markets of fake merchandise.

“In the year 2017, the Food and Drug Administration through our efforts, resulted to the confiscation of various violative health products which reached to an estimated amount of P22 million,” said Lagasco.

The confiscation, he added, also resulted into the filing of 16 criminal charges against those involved in the distribution and selling.

Lagasco promised that safety of the public will be ensured by strictly implementing their mandate on running after fake products.

“Through our extensive and strengthened post marketing surveillance, we enforce operations to better guarantee consumer protection,” added Lagasco.

The participating agencies in campaign against counterfeit products are Optical Media Board, FDA, PNP, Hechanova and Co. Incorporated, Vergara Mamagun Jamero Gonzales Law Office and MarksPro Philippines.

Counterfeit and pirated goods have been one of the problems confronting legitimate business establishment in the Philippines.

The inter-agency intellectual property task force said it has seized P6.7 billion worth of fake and pirated goods in the first five months of the year.

From January to May this year, the NCIPR’s seizure stood at more than 80 percent of its total seizure in 2017 that amounted to P8.2 billion.

Most of the fake goods were cigarettes and cigarette paraphernalia, such as packing machines, raw materials, filters, and stamps.

Handbags and wallets worth P151 million, meanwhile, were also seized from January to May, as well as P103 million worth of optical discs that were also confiscated by the Optical Media Board.

The NCIPR was created in 2008 as an inter-agency task group to formulate and carry out plans and policies.