Wendell Tagalogon, a resident of Caloocan City, was convicted on Tuesday, June 23, after pleading guilty to an illegal camcording incident in 2010. He was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and fined P50,000.
Litigation against Tagalogon began in 2011, when a complaint against him was filed following his arrest for recording the hit film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Tagalogon was apprehended one minute into illegally recording the film by security guard Christian Jerome Casidsid and anti-piracy agents Edgar Tanquion and Nora Gallardo on November 18, 2010. The agents witnessed at close hand Tagalogon using a black-colored counterfeit Sony MP5 electronic device.
The country?s film production, distribution, and exhibition sectors commended the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) for its efforts to end movie piracy by bringing illegal camcorders to justice.
?This conviction is a welcome development, as it shows that enforcement and judicial branches are working together to protect the film industry and that the Anti-Camcording Law is an effective deterrent against the crime of movie theft,? said General Benjamin Magalong, chief of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG). ?
?The PNP will continue to work closely with our partners, the film industry and the DoJ to deter these criminals.?
?We are sending a message loud and clear that theater operators across the country will not tolerate this crime in our facilities. This conviction is proof that the strict measures we have employed to prevent camcording of films both local and international are being implemented and taken seriously,? said a representative of the National Cinema Association of the Philippines (NCAP) and the Motion Picture Anti-Film Piracy Council.
Under the Anti-Camcording Law (RA 10088 of July 2010), any person who is caught using or attempting to use an audiovisual recording device to transmit or make a copy of any part of a performance in an exhibition facility of any cinematographic film or other audiovisual work will be charged with a fine of P50,000 to P750, 000 and will face imprisonment of a minimum of six months and one day to six years and one day.
