MANILA, Philippines – At least P3.3 billion worth of pirated goods were seized in various anti-piracy operations for the first half of 2009, the national committee on Intellectual property rights (NCIPR) of the Department of Trade and Industry has reported.

This is slightly lower than the P3.5 billion worth of cpnfiscated goods that was reported in the first half of 2008, the NCIPR said.

Confiscated products include CDs, DVDs, clothing items and accessories, and medicines.

The NCIPR report was delivered by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, which is also under the DTI.

Part of the haul includes three optical media replicating machines worth P200 million. These were intercepted by the Bureau of Customs and the Optical Media Board in May, the report said.

But the Philippine National Police (PNP) posted the biggest haul with P2.1 billion, followed by the OMB with P785 million, most of which were pirated software, music, and movies in optical media.

IPOPHIL Director General Adrian Cristobal, Jr. warned that consumers should not purchase or use pirated items to prevent their proliferation.

Likewise, Cristobal warned that consumers be aware of fake drugs that might endanger their health.

The value of seized counterfeit products has been growing steadily in the last four years.

In 2005, enforcement agencies reported P1.1billion worth of seized counterfeit goods, followed by P1.3 billion in 2006.

In 2007, NCIPR reported P2.9 billion worth of seized counterfeit goods.

Members of the NCIPR are the National Bureau of Investigation, the BOC, OMB, Department of Justice, Department of Interior and Local Government, the National Telecommunications Commission, Bureau of Food and Drugs, PNP, and the National Book Development Board.