By PATRICIA MARCELO and ISAGANI DE LA PAZ

MANILA – Some overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may resemble Johnny Depp, but unlike the charming pirate, they are regarded as “unwitting” couriers of bootleg videos to and from the Philippines, experts told the OFW Journalism Consortium.

An official of the Association of Video Distributors of the Philippines (AvidPhil) urged the government to look into this.

AvidPhil, a national trade association promoting the video industry, made the call after the United States Trade Representative removed the Philippines from the priority list of governments that American firms accuse of allowing intellectual property theft.

The USTR placed the Philippines under the Priority Watch List of countries liable for trade sanctions due to ‘rampant” IP rights infringements including optical media piracy, copyright and trademark violations of all types, importation of counterfeit merchandise, software piracy of all types and bootleg cable television. The PWL is a step above a US trade sanction and below the Ordinary Watch List.

According to the Philippine IP Office, upgrading the Philippines to the status of OWL – four days before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency-effectively removes the threat of US trade sanctions against the country.

A negative finding from the USTR, the IP Office added’ could have affected the country’s export relations to the US.

Accordng to a recent Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) report, the Philippines has to satisfy the USTR’s discretionary criteria, which include providing “adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights” to qualify for unilaterally granted trade preferences.

The Philippines participates in the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, offering duty-free imports of certain products into the US.

From January to November 2005, nearly US$936-million worth of Philippine goods, or 11.1 percent of the country’s total exports to the US, entered the US duty-free under the GSP program, the IIPA said in its report dated February 13, 2006.

The Philippines should not continue too expect such favorable treatment at this level when it fails to meet the discretionary criteria, the IIPA said before the USTR decided to upgrade the country into the OWL.

The treat to be downgraded back to the PWL remains, according to AvidPhil.

“Authorities should look into the products that are being brought by the OFWs into the country as well as those being brought abroad because some of these are pirated materials,’ said AvidPhil executive director Eduardo Sazon.

A member of the Intellectual Property Coalition (IPC), AvidPhil has been fighting piracy in the country since it expanded its members last year to include distributors of non-motion picture videograms such as karaoke and music videos.

‘They (OFWs) are unwittingly becoming tools in carrying pirated materials.” Sazon added without giving statistics or details supporting his views.

Ellene SANA, executive director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) Philippines, however, said the accusation was ’unfair”

Anyone who travels, not only OFWs, can carry pirated materials, Sana told the OFW Journalism Consortium.

“It is unfair and uncalled for to single out OFWs. It can happen to anyone…so it’s everybody’s concern,’ she protested. .

Indeed, even IPO director-general Adrian Cristobal,Jr, said that while 85 percent to 95 percent of pirated materials in the Philippines come from abroad, OFWs carrying pirated materials are ‘marginal’

“What is alarming is what you see here. You don’t have to go far to see how serious the problem here in our own stores.’ Cristobal added.

Cristobal may be referring to several locations in Metro Manila alone where sidewalk vendors openly sell bootlegged copies of foreign and local audio and video optical disks.

The IPA claims that piracy of OD products “causes grave losses to all the copyright industries” whose sectors are increasingly using a common set of media to distribute their product worldwide.

The IIPA is a coalition of seven trade associations formed in1983 to represent the US copyright-based industries in bilateral and multilateral efforts to improve international protection of copyright materials.

The IIPA said OD piracy in the Philippines consists of imports, particularly from China and Malaysia, less so from Indonesia, but local pirate production is increasing, now making up at least 30 percent of pirated discs.

It added there are 11 OD production facilities, including two mastering facilities and one DVD 9 facility (with two lines). The IIPA said industry estimates there are roughly 38 lines in the Philippines, amounting to production capacity of 133 million discs per year.

‘There is little authorized production and unfortunately, in the Philippines, the capacity to produce optcal discs exceeds the ability of right holders to license production,’ the IIPA added. (OFW Journalism Consortium, Inc.)