OMB beefs up campaign in provinces

The Optical Media Board (OMB) has intensified its provincial campaign against counterfeit optical media products, which its chairman, Eduardo Manzano, said are being smuggled particularly through the southern part of the country.

The OMB cited verified intelligence reports that this unlawful trade is being used to further and finance terrorist activities.

It has been internationally noted, according to the OMB, that the business of counterfeit optical media products is more profitable – and less risky – than drug trafficking, owing to lesser penalties and sentences subject to suspended implementation.

Of late, the OMB has discovered that sachets of shabu or its derivatives were stashed inside counterfeit optical media products.

Also, during one of its enforcement operations, the OMB found 265 live M-16 bullets and two live grenades in the same box containing counterfeit optical me-dia products.