"We are not only intensifying but expanding our campaign to cover other areas outside Metro Manila," said Optical Media Board (OMB) chairman Eduardo Manzano. According to the OMB chair, software, along with film and music, is one of the most pirated optical media in the country today, which is proving to be a deterrent to the country's economic progress. "Especially given the crisis we are in, the need to stop software piracy is now more urgent than ever," he said.

Composed of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), OMB, and the Philippine National Police (PNP), as supported by the private sector through the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the PAPT was formed in 2005 and has since then conducted roughly 123 raids against end-users as well Internet cafes, through which it seized over P300 million worth of software and computers.

According to Atty. Bienvenido Marquez, Philippine consultant of the Business Software Alliance, software piracy has been stunting the growth of the country's software development industry and has, in fact, robbed the industry of roughly P70 million in revenues in 2007 alone. End-user software piracy in companies remains the most serious threat to software industry in the country, while Internet cafes using unlicensed software are also a big problem, said Marquez.

Citing a 2008 study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Marquez said the software piracy rate in the Philippines went down by 2% to 69% in 2007; the industry losses, however, have increased from $119 million to $147 million in 2007 as PC sales and usage in the country grew at a much higher rate.

Also according to the study, reducing the PC software piracy rate by 10 percentage points over the next four years could generate hundreds of thousands of new jobs globally and billions of dollars in economic growth.