“The Philippines fully understands and appreciates the importance of protecting intellectual property rights (IPR).  If other nations are interested in seeing us succeed in the war against piracy, downplaying our gains and questioning our political will does not do anything to help us in winning this war,” Secretary Albert said.  “We have had major gains against these pirates and cooperation between government and industry is at its highest levels. There is no need to question our sincerity and determination to address IPR issues,” she added.

The Secretary has been personally involved in the efforts of the Philippine Government to fight piracy.  Secretary Albert was formerly the Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for International Economic Relations and was involved in the issue of IPR, particularly in multilateral fora.

“Aside from closing sales outlets, arresting pirates and seizing truckloads of pirated material, we have improved the legal mechanisms that protect IPR.  We have the Optical Media Law which provides for penalties of up to three million pesos and imprisonment for nine years for film and music piracy.  This will be an important tool in this fight,” the Secretary said (please see DFA Press Release SFA-DDA-062-04, 29 January  2004 “Optical Media Act Major Blow Against IPR Violators –Albert”).

“The Report of the US Trade Representative makes much of pirated VCDs and DVDs in the Philippines.  If I may reiterate what Secretary Ople said on this issue, these pirated material can be just as easily bought in midtown Manhattan or downtown Los Angeles,” the Secretary said (please see DFA Press Release No. 015-03, 2 January 2002 “Ople - We Already Know the Message; But the Method of Delivering the Message is Questionable”)

Responding to the USTR’s assertion that there must be more convictions on IPR violations, Secretary Albert said: “Regardless of what this report says, the Philippines will continue to uphold the rule of law and observe due process in enforcing its laws.” END.