MANILA, Philippines - The value of counterfeit items seized by the government surged by 121 percent in the January to February period compared to last year, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) said.
Data from the IPOPHL show the government confiscated P1.783 billion worth of counterfeit goods in the first two months of the year compared to the P805.031 million in the same period a year ago.
“The increase was due to the big seizures of joint operations of BOC (Bureau of Customs) and NBI (National Bureau of Investigation),†IPOPHL director general Ricardo Blancaflor said in a text message yesterday.
The combined value of fake or pirated items obtained by the BOC and NBI jumped 143 percent to P1.693 billion as of end-February from P696.56 million in the comparable period in 2013.
The Optical Media Board also supported the increase as the value of its hauled counterfeit items went up 65.82 percent to P178.703 million for the two-month period from P107.771 million a year ago.
The Philippine National Police (PNP), however, did not have any seized counterfeit items for the January to February period this year.
For the same two-month period in 2013, the PNP got counterfeit goods valued at P700,502.
Earlier, Blancaflor said the IPOPHL is aiming for a record-high value of confiscated counterfeit items this year.
In 2011, the government seized a total of P8.3 billion worth of counterfeit items, the highest in history.
Blancaflor said the IPOPHL intends to work with the private sector to achieve record counterfeit seizures this year.
In particular, the government wants to work with pharmaceutical companies to enforce intellectual property rights and be able to confiscate fake medicines sold in the market.
The government also intends to put more focus on counterfeit automotive and motorcycle parts this year amid reports received from motor vehicle and motorcycle parts distributors.
The value of counterfeit items seized by the government reached a total of P7.76 billion in 2013.