Philippine armoured vehicles destroy counterfeit goods

MANILA, June 30, 2011 - Armoured Philippine troop transports destroyed an $8 million pile of counterfeit designer goods Thursday as the country sought to be removed from a US blacklist of nations tolerating intellectual piracy.

Fake Oakley sunglasses, Lacoste shoes, and illegally copied DVDs of Hollywood film blockbusters were crushed under the 11-tonne vehicles in a ceremony held at the parade ground of the national police headquarters.

Intellectual Property Office director-general Ricardo Blancaflor said the 350 million-peso ($8.08 million) pile was just part of some 1.4 billion pesos' worth of goods seized by police and other law enforcement agencies this year.

"Our annual target is 10 billion pesos," he told reporters, as government workers armed with cutters followed through by slashing at fraudulent Louis Vuitton bags.

"I only have one message. The fight against piracy is global. We are not alone here. If we think we can win by fighting this alone, we are wrong," Blancaflor added.

He said that counterfeiters were also destroying Filipino jobs, including those of artists, while depriving the country of import tax revenues.

Blancaflor was joined at the ceremony by the head of customs, film regulators, and the ambassadors of several western countries, though the US ambassador to Manila was absent.

The Philippines remains on this year's US Trade Representative's lower-level Watch List of countries deemed not to be doing enough to protect intellectual property rights.

But the report, released in May, cited progress made by the Philippines and other trading partners in enacting significant legislation protecting intellectual property.