OMB raids pirates’den in Malabon

Agents of the Optical Media Board (OMB), formerly the Videogram Regulatory Board (VRB), and the local authorities seized two replicating machines and thousands of fake audio compact discs and video compact disks in a raid of a manufacturing firm last Thursday in Malabon City.

Barangay chairman Sheryl Nolasco of Barangay Potrero said OMB intelligence agents led by officer Dean Perez, assisted by the local police and Barangay Potrero officials swooped down on the Great Ocean Enterprise at 164 Lanzones Road at around 3 p.m.

Confiscated were two replicating machines each capable of producing at least 20,000 CDs and VCDs daily.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Malabon City Judge Rosa Reyes, the raiding team entered the firm’s compound by destroying its iron gate’s padlock.

The establishment’s employees as well as its owner, identified as one Chona Crisostomo Xiao, a Chinese-Filipino trader, were not around during the operation.

Sources said that they could have been forewarned about the raid.

According to Nolasco, the firm’s business permit was restricted to the production of blank CDs.

Nolasco said that Xiao’s license to operate could be cancelled and she could face charges of violating the intellectual property rights law based on the evidence confiscated during the raid.

The seizure was conducted after local leaders, headed by barangay kagawad Pons Leonsio and Pio Dadula, made their own discreet surveillance on the suspicious operation of Xiao’s firm.

After almost two weeks of sleuthing, the village officials were able to establish that Great Ocean Enterprise was engaged in the illegal copying of music and films.

The barangay officials took the initiative of reporting the matter to the OMB, leading to Thursday’s raid.

Nolasco said the OMB operatives are preparing charges against the firm’s owner.

In Muntinlupa, the city government has intensified a campaign to curb selling of illegal VCDs in the streets.

Led by the traffic environment and discipline office, authorities have seized more than 3,000 pirated VCDs in the past week.

City hall information office chief Tess Valencia said the campaign, in coordination with operatives of Police Community Precinct 2, has been focusing on Alabang, where piracy is allegedly rampant.

City Mayor Jaime Fresnedi has ordered Superintendent Demetriou Pagaduan to lead the special team that would "cleanse the sidewalks in the city of vendors of pirated movies."

"We were successful in this campaign in the past, but for some reason, pirated movies have returned to the streets," Valencia told The STAR in a phone interview.

She added that they were alarmed by reports that the VCD vendors were not residents of the city and are taking advantage of the volume of people passing Alabang.

Valencia said they would coordinate with the OMB to further boost the campaign against vendors of pirated films.

"This is a running program. We will not stop until they’re all gone," she noted.– With Edu Punay