Senate panel defers OMB’s budget approval; questions anti-piracy efforts
PANEL DEFERS PROPOSED 2023 OMB BUDGET: Upon the motion of Sen. Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, the Senate Finance Subcommittee M deferred the approval of the proposed 2023 budget of the Optical Media Board during Tuesday’s proceedings, October 18, 2022. Screengrab/Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate finance committee on Tuesday deferred the approval of the 2023 budget of the Optical Media Board (OMB) after the track record of its chairman, who was appointed since October, was put under question during the budget hearing.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada grilled OMB chairman and chief executive officer Jeremy Marquez about his achievements since he assumed office at the agency in October last year.
According to Estrada, no administrative cases have been filed against violators of Republic Act No. 9239 or the law regulating optical media from November 2021 until July this year.
He pointed out that the OMB had been averaging 200 administrative cases filed each month, or up to 2,500 cases per year before Marquez took over.
To respond, Marquez said that under his management, the OMB prioritized cleansing its ranks given corruption complaints before focusing on enforcing the law on optical media.
“Napakarami pong corruption complaints in terms of extortion ng aming agency. We actually preferred to cleanse muna the agency kasi kung mag-intensive enforcement po kami we’d be afraid na the complaints will not stop at tuloy tuloy po,” Marquez pointed out.
(There are a lot of corruption complaints in terms of extortion against our agency. So we preferred to cleanse the agency because, without intensive enforcement, we’d be afraid the corruption complaints would not stop. Instead, they may pile up.)
During the hearing, Estrada said the OMB collected P560,000 in administrative fines in 2018, P1.8 million in 2019, P350,000 in 2020, and P2.3 million from January to November 2021.
In response, Marquez explained that illegal DVDs were not as rampant now as before, hence the fewer seizures of illegal items, which seemed to baffle Estrada.
“Ibig niyong sabihin hindi na rampant ngayon as compared to before noong 2018 [Do you mean it’s no longer rampant now compared in 2018]?” the senattor asked.
“Pagdating po sa mga DVDs, I’m proud to say na hindi na masyadong frequent or rampant po y’ung mga nagbebenta or nagdi-distribute ng mga DVDs po [When it comes to DVDs, I’m proud to say that selling and distribution are no longer that frequent],”Marquez answered.
“Sa Greenhills, wala [No more in Greenhills]?” Estrada asked.
“Parang wala na rin po. Nasa hard drives na po kasi ang karamihan [It seems there is no more. Mostly in the hard drives already],” Marquez responded.
Estrada further pressed Marquez, asking him if the OMB has operated in Greenhills.
“Are you sure na wala nang DVDs sa Greenhills [Are you sure no more DVDs in Greenhills]?” he asked.
“Well, baka mayroon naman po pasulpot-sulpot [Well, maybe there are a few that are emerging],” Marquez answered.
“Hindi kayo nag-ooperate [You do not operate (in Greenhils)]?” Estrada pressed.
Marquez responded, “We feel there’s no need to operate in Greenhills as of the moment po.”
Estrada continued by noting that the OMB had been able to seize counterfeit storage devices worth over P700 million in 2018; P309 million in 2019; and P213 million in 2020, but that such a haul had not happened since November 2021 until August 2022.
“Are you being remiss on your job?” Estrada then asked Marquez.
Marquez, in response, said he had training and background on being “business-friendly,” which again seemed to annoy the senator.
“Hindi pwede ‘yung ganoon eh, kasi kapag nagkasala ka, pagkalabag sa batas, kailangan aksyunan mo. Hindi ka naman pwede maging friendly sa lahat. Kung magiging friendly ka sa mga kawatan, sa mga violators ng batas, walang mangyayari, talagang walang mangyayari,” Estrada said.
(That should not be the case. That’s a violation of the law and you need to act on it. It would help if you did not become friendly with those thieves. With the violators of the law, nothing will ever happen.)
In addition, he noted that no administrative cases had been settled by the OMB since November 2021, prompting Estrada to motion to defer the budget approval of the OMB, which the panel then accepted.
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