P5.3 B worth of fake goods – mostly cigarettes – seized in Q1

Most fake or counterfeit goods confiscated by the government in the first quarter of the year worth at least P5.3 billion were cigarettes and cigarette production equipment, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) said.

In a statement on Wednesday, IPOPHL said the value of the seized goods in the first three months of the year has already reached more than half of the total value of fake goods confiscated for the entire year in 2017, which reached P8.2 billion.

The spike this quarter – a triple-digit growth from the same period last year – was primarily attributed to the P5 billion worth of cigarettes and cigarette production paraphernalia seized by the government.

According to IPOPHL, these were mostly the products seized by the Philippine National Police from a factory in Bulacan in February.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/993578/p5-3-b-worth-of-fake-goods-mostly-cigarettes-seized-in-q1