(POLITIKO) Senator Jinggoy Estrada is disappointed with the poor performance of the Optical Media Board (OMB) led by Jeremy Marquez in the past year.
Estrada proposed a massive cut in the OMB budget for next year after the agency’s “zero performance.”
He said the agency failed to seize any counterfeit optical media, file cases, and collect penalty fees in the past year.
“According to my research, the OMB had no performance whatsoever for the past year. No collection, no apprehension of violators, wala, talagang zero performance,” Estrada said during an NET25 interview.
“One year in office, wala talagang ginawa, zero performance. That’s why on Monday, during continuing budget plenary deliberations in the Senate, I will propose a one peso budget for OMB,” he said.
The OMB, a state agency regulating the production and use of optical media and imposing penalties for illegal reproduction, earlier proposed a P75.858-million budget for the year.
Estrada however criticized Marquez for alleged failure of OMB to file cases against violators since he took the helm last November.
In contrast, the senator said the OMB recorded an average 200 administrative cases filed each month before Marquez took over.
Compared with Marquez’s predecessors, Estrada said the OMB collected between P350,000 to P2.3 million in administrative penalties in recent years. “And during your term, zero collection,” he told Marquez.
He said OMB also had zero seizure of counterfeit and illegal storage devices from November 2021.
Asked to explain, Marquez claimed they found no need to conduct seizure operations since the sale of pirated DVDs was supposedly no longer rampant.
But Ejercito reminded Marquez to enforce the country’s laws. He said nothing will happen if law enforcers become friendly to lawbreakers.