Customs bureau seizes P1.1B worth of counterfeit goods

MANILA, Philippines–Some P1.1 billion worth of pirated and counterfeit goods were seized by the Bureau of Customs from January to November this year.

Lawyer Ricardo Blancaflor, director general for the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights, a multi-agency group tasked with enforcing IP laws, said it was considered as one of the highest amount of seized bogus items.

Blancaflor congratulated the BOC, through Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, for its accomplishment.

In his letter to Biazon, Blancaflor said that “the performance of BOC as of November 30, 2012 is 22.05 percent of the total confiscation of the NCIPR (P4,988,645,292).”

The BOC has one of the highest seizures of pirated and counterfeit goods among the law enforcement agencies under the NCIPR, he said.

For his part, Biazon lauded the performance of the IPU-BOC. He said the agency’s performance was the result of strengthening its border control as well as the operation conducted on warehouses that are known to store counterfeit Louie Vuitton, Gucci, Prada items and other luxury brands.