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Philippines Awash in Fakes
12 September 2012
The Philippines is seizing record amounts of fake goods, most of them from China, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. In the first eight months of 2011, over P3.8 billion (US$87.7 million) worth of counterfeit products were picked up, an increase of 62% from the same period last year.
Seizures of counterfeit goods this year are easily expected to top the record haul of P5.68 billion pesos recorded in 2009, said Chester Singco, head of the inter-agency secretariat on intellectual property enforcement. “As reported to us and based on confiscations, most of the fakes come from China. But there are reports of more items coming from Malaysia,” he told AFP.
Figures released by the secretariat revealed that in 2011, handbags, wallets and backpacks were among the most-seized items, followed by fake clothing and bootleg movies and music. Fake goods are found easily in markets and alongside busy roads in the Philippines.
The Philippines remains on the US Trade Representative’s lower-level Watch List of countries deemed not to be doing enough to protect intellectual property rights.
