Benhur leads raid at EDSA mall; fake VCDs seized

A few days after his police chief took a leave of absence to study abroad, Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos personally led yesterday a police raid at the EDSA shopping complex and confiscated some P1 million worth of pirated VCDs and CDs.

An apparently irked Abalos seized the pornographic materials amid reports that a number of vendors were dropping his name to evade arrest.

The young city mayor ordered last week a crackdown on all forms of vices, especially jueteng, illegal drugs and bold shows and pornography, but the police failed to carry out his directive because their chief, Superintendent Jose Gentiles had taken a leave of absence.

Gentiles post was taken over by Senior Superintendent Sukarno Ikbala, formerly chief of the directorial staff and deputy chief for operations of the Eastern Police District (EPD).

"So now, I’m personally supervising the fight against illegal vices to ensure the city’s youth and other residents would lead an upright life," said Abalos.

During the raid, several boxes of suspected pirated discs seized from 22 stalls at the EDSA shopping complex were brought to the police headquarters for proper disposition.

One of the stalls, the Omairah Music store located at the ground floor of the EDSA Central Cinema, showed Abalos documents from the Videogram Regulatory Board (VRB) authorizing them to sell VCD and CD discs.

However, Abalos, a lawyer, insisted on confiscating their products for failure to stamp the VRB seal on their VCD and CD discs.

"It is now up to the owners to prove in court that their products are legal," Abalos pointed out. "As far as the city government is concerned, these products, some of them bold films, do not carry VRB seals."

According to Abalos, charges of intellectual piracy and illegal vending would be filed against the owners of the confiscated discs. – Non Alquitran