Lim sees ‘piracy-free’ Manila by June

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim is optimistic “pirates” will be phased out in Manila by June.

Following a recent United States Trade Representative (USTR) report citing the Quiapo district as a notorious market for piracy, Lim has embarked on an ambitious program to stop local counterfeiters in “one total sweep.”

Recently, Lim invited local Muslim “ulamas” or religious and scholarly leaders to a dialogue at city hall, after receiving information most of the vendors of pirated goods in Quiapo were Muslims.

Also present at the dialogue was Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines director general Ricardo Blancaflor, who expressed hopes to implement in Quiapo the same intellectual property rights protection program pursued by IPOPHL in another notorious market for piracy in Metro Manila, the Greenhills Shopping Center.

“Manila is gaining a bad image as a source of piracy, but actually, manufacturers, whom we have yet to identify, are just dropping their products here. We will adopt this concerted action to stop the proliferation of pirated discs,” Lim said.

“We are asking our local Muslim vendors to stop selling counterfeit wares, because if there are no vendors, there will be no industry,” he added.

Optical Media Board chief Ronnie Ricketts, who also attended the dialogue, expressed hopes piracy could be wiped out.