Thursday, January 31, 2008 Police raid stops operations of computer installer stalls By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
THE operations of several stalls selling pirated computer program installers in Baguio's central business district (CBD) were stalled after they were "accidentally" raided by the police late Monday afternoon.
Although a final inventory of the confiscated compact disks (CDs) and digital CDs still have to be finalized, the raiding team estimated that about 1,500 pirated items were seized in the Baguio Center Mall alone.
Chief Inspector Engelbert Soriano, chief of Baguio City Police Office (BCPO)-Station 7, said the "accidental" raid was conducted from 4 to 6 p.m. of January 28, after a team only supposed to be conducting an information campaign chanced upon a stall selling the pirated items at the Baguio Center Mall.
Senior Inspector Victor Senoto, deputy chief of BCPO-Station 7, who led the raiding team, said they started their information campaign by going around the CBD to remind stallholders selling second-hand cell phones about the dangers of items smuggled in from China and Korea.
"We were just supposed to relay to these stall owners about the information we got about cell phones being smuggled from these two countries, and the reported danger of harmful radiation emanating from them, and also to remind them to register with the National Telecommunications Commission until the set deadline of January 30 this year," he said.
"However, while doing our rounds, we chanced upon these stalls selling computer program installers and inquired about their permits, but their owners or operators failed to present any. This was when we decided to confiscate their goods," Senoto explained.
When Sun.Star conducted a follow-up, Chief Inspector David Mariano, BCPO Operations Branch chief, revealed this was their first operation to implement Republic Act (RA) 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines this year.
RA 8293 protects and secures the exclusive rights of scientists, inventors, artists and other gifted citizens to their intellectual property and creations such as trademarks, service marks, geographic indications, industrial designs, patents, layout designs or topographies of integrated circuits, and protection of undisclosed information.
