Combined elements of the Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team (PAPT) and the Anti-Fraud and Commercial Crimes Division (AFCCD) of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) conducted a raid of computer shops Power Station Computer Services inside MCS Building, along Magsaysay Drive in Olongapo; and the Sky Jersey and Santol-Paguia Computer World Plus, both in Bataan.
The said shops were caught replicating unlicensed software programs.
Police confiscated equipment used in producing bootlegged copies of some software programs such as Microsoft Windows and Office. Hundreds of CDs containing pirated software programs were also seized in the raids.
Nabbed are store owners Norlee Paguia of Sky Jersey and Joanne Ruiz-Soyangco of Santol Paguia Computer World Plus for copyright infringement charges and were detained at the CIDG office in Manila.
The raids are part of the government's Pilipinas Anti-Piracy Team, a campaign aimed at fighting software piracy in the Philippines. The team is composed of representatives from the National Bureau of Investigation, the Optical Media Board and the Philippine National Police.
Illegal copying and sale of counterfeit software is a violation of the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, which includes penalties of up to nine years imprisonment and a fine of up to P1.5 million.