The National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights said its members confiscated about P13.7 billion worth of contraband goods from January to July 2019, preventing the products from reaching the local consumers.
Items seized by the National Bureau of Investigation represented the bulk of the value with P9.32 billion. The Bureau of Customs impounded P3.90 billion while the Food and Drug Administration confiscated P2.82 billion.
Partially validated data covered P1.83 billion or a fifth of the total inventory. Cigarettes and alcohol products took up 25 percent or P456.80 million while pharmaceuticals and personal care products accounted for another 25 percent or P455.20 million; handbags or wallets, 25 percent or P449.88 million; optical media, 10 percent or P190.72 million; and footwear, 7 percent or P130.12 million.
The NCIPR had not yet authenticated NBI’s P8 billion worth of haul which comprised mostly of tobacco. Customs’ capture of mostly wearable items worth P3.9 billion in a Divisoria mall had yet to be validated.
The value of items confiscated in the seven-month period this year represented nearly 60 percent of the overall capture in 2018 which reached P23.6 billion.
“The implementation of the hike in new and huge taxes on tobacco will start next year. Also, we are closely watching developments on the proposal to impose taxes on alcohol products and e-cigarettes and other vapor products. As early as now, we are readying ourselves for the possible rise of counterfeiting of these products by intensifying our exploration of new enforcement strategies to employ,” said Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines director-general Josephine Santiago who is also the vice-chairman of NCIPR.
NCIPR underwent a brief but intensive capacity-building workshop last week on intellectual property rights enforcement.
The two-day workshop was organized by the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office and attended by the Enforcement authorities representing each Association of Southeast Asian Nation member.
The workshop is one of the series of IPR enforcement capacity-building events that NCIPR engages to find insights on the best practices it can adopt.
“The NCIPR is also aggressively widening its network to put on board other government agencies into IPR Enforcement, “ Santiago said.
The inclusion into the NCIPR-team of more government agencies, particularly the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Immigration and the Information and Technology Departments, will be one of the topics in the first high-level NCIPR meeting on Sept. 25 at the Dusit Thani Hotel.
Other concerns to be tackled are IPR enforcement in the online space; allocation of budget to boost personnel of NCIPR members dedicated to IPR enforcement; eradicating the use of unlicensed software in government offices; discussion on intensifying anti-camcording campaign; and the 2019-2022 Action Plan which will prioritize implementing preventive measures rather than cure.