THE Optical Media Board (OMB), together with local authorities, destroyed Thursday, January 17, a total of 440 sacks of pirated DVDs and CDs worth P63 million.
The discs were seized during a raid in different stalls in the city last September 2018.
The street outside the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) headquarters was temporarily closed Thursday to give way to the destruction of pirated films and music as well as the equipment used for its production.
“We want to show the people together with the top brass of PNP here in Davao that we are very serious about our job. We want to warn everyone not to pursue this kind of trade. We’re here to enforce the law. We’re here to protect our film and music industry who have been suffering for so long simply because of piracy,” lawyer Anselmo Adriano, the chair and CEO of OMB, said Thursday.
They made the destruction public to stop speculations that after the operation, the discs might return to the market and will create a cycle.
After the ceremonial destruction, he assured that each disc will be crushed individually before shipping it to Manila.
Meanwhile, he warned those who are into the piracy business to stop for they are violating the Republic Act 9239, also known as the Optical Media Act of 2003.
For the last three years, since 2016, Adriano said they already confiscated about P3 billion worth of pirated materials.
Meanwhile, Police Senior Superintendent Alexander Tagum, DCPO director, vowed to be more proactive in addressing piracy in the city. He assured that they will conduct more operations against business establishments selling pirated items.
Tagum noticed that the stalls they raided in September returned to their usual business. He said they will conduct a case build up operation and continuous surveillance and monitoring against them.
“Anytime now, we may launch another raid sa mga stores and because we have a memorandum of agreement with the office of Optical Media Board and the Office of the President, definitely, it is now our mandate to continue what we have started, we will continue our operation against local piracy on all film and music in Davao City,” Tagum said.
While he acknowledged these individuals are just doing it for livelihood, he said resorting to illegal activity is not an excuse. He even likened it to a drug pusher who always reasons out that they are just doing it for their family but then he said that it doesn’t justify the fact that their means violate the law.