Manila raids net P500-M fake goods

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A series of raids conducted in Manila by the government’s antipiracy enforcement arm yielded P500-million worth of smuggled fake goods.

In a statement on Saturday, the Bureau of Customs said members of the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) seized the counterfeit products on Friday, including clothes, batteries, perfumes and 1,440 boxes of seasoning granules.

The goods were discovered in eight warehouses on Barraca and La Torre streets in the Binondo district and on Rivera Street in Tondo.

The bureau has summoned the owners of the raided warehouses for investigation.

Data from the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines showed that as of end-September, member agencies of the NCIPR have seized fake products that could fetch P8 billion if allowed to flood the market. Ben O. de Vera