Marcos sets state visit to Malaysia on Tuesday

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. will push for exploratory talks on the halal industry and Islamic banking in his State Visit to Malaysia next week, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

D uring a news briefing in Malacañang on Friday, DFA Spokesperson Maria Teresita C. Daza said these would be among the new areas, which the President is expected to discuss with Malaysian officials during his trip in Malaysia from July 25 to 27.

The agreements are expected to help the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in developing its Islamic financial system and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to boost the country’s production of Halal products.

In its w ebsite, the Department of Agriculture (DA) refers to Halal as what is permissible or lawful in traditional Islamic law. It is usually applied to food and drinks.

Daza noted the Chief Executive is also eyeing possible bilateral cooperation on agriculture, food security, tourism, digital economy, tourism, and people to people exchanges.

“He will pursue bilateral cooperation in priority areas that are at least in support of the economic agenda of the country,” Daza said.

Sabah issue

THE President will be meeting with the current king of Malaysia, Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

“It [S tate Visit] is also timely as the Philippines and Malaysia will mark the 68th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries,” Daza said.

Daza said the country’s territorial claims on Sabah might be discussed in the said meetings.

“It ’s very difficult to preempt the discussion, so I have no comment on whether it will actually be discussed,” Daza said.

D uring the visit of Ibrahim in the country last March, he and the President have agreed to hold in-depth discussion about Sabah, which the country claims through the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu.

MIF promotion

THE President will also be meeting with Malaysian businessmen to encourage them to invest in the country, especially with the passage of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Act last Tuesday.

The MIF is the country’s first sovereign wealth fund, which is expected to help attract more foreign investments in the country.

Daza said the S tate Visit would provide the government the opportunity to officially promote the MIF.

Malaysia is one the country’s top trading partners and sources of tourist arrivals last year.

“As expected, the President will actively promote the Philippines as an attractive trade investment and tourist destination,” Daza said.

Mar cos is also set to meet with the Filipino community in Malaysia.

“It is safe t o assume that the programs of the government relative to the welfare, the promotion of the welfare of our migrant workers will be raised,” Daza said.

Samuel P. Medenilla

THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is hoping for a significant decline in the consumption of pirated content as it finds a new ally in awardwinning artist, singer, host, tri-athlete and Philippine Army reservist Matteo Guidicelli, the newest face of IPOPHL’s anti-piracy campaign. “ With a credible and trustworthy figure at the forefront of our anti-piracy advocacy, we hope to cut through to a larger population of Filipinos, especially the youth. We want more Filipinos to see more clearly how piracy is robbing the creative economy of revenues and the government of much-needed taxes,” Director General Rowel S. Barba said on Thursday at the IPOPHL’s office in Taguig City.

A t the event, IPOPHL, Guidicelli and his manager, Viva Artists Agency Inc., signed the contract that outlines activities both parties will be undertaking throughout the yearlong ambassadorship.

V iva and Guidicelli commit to create video campaigns to show the importance of respecting others’ intellectual property (IP) rights. IPOPHL, on the other hand, commits to conduct a free learning event designed to help the new ambassador, Viva and other select piracy-affected industries in protecting their IP assets more effectively.

A true artist for artists

BARBA described Guidicelli as the “perfect face” for the campaign, noting that the celebrity’s illustrious career both as an actor and a music artist allows him to identify with fellow artists “who fight tooth and nail to protect their works from content thieves.”

As an actor, Guidicelli won CinemaOne Originals’ “Best Actor” Award in 2013 for his performance as John in the thriller movie “Saturday Night Chills.” In 2011, he was named the “Most Promising Male Star of the Year” by the GMMSF Box-Office Entertainment Awards and garnered the “Outstanding Breakthrough Performance by an Actor” Award from the Golden Screen TV Awards for his role as Ronnie in the fantasy TV series “Agua Bendita.”

Guidic elli’s music career, meanwhile, started as early as 2015 with the launch of his first album “Matteo Guidicelli,” followed by “Hey” in 2017. He has since released several singles, such as Sundo (2019), I Just Wanna Be Your Man (2020) and The Gift (2022)—the last one sang in tandem with his wife and Asia’s Pop star Royalty Sarah Geronimo.

According to IPOPHL, bilyon-bilyonang nawawalasacreative sectors dahil sa piracy. This threatens the livelihood of 6.98 million Filipino creative industry workers, and of course, their families. As the ambassador for Anti-Piracy, my advocacy will focus on guiding the public towards an IP-safe environment, where artistic creations are protected from piracy and other IP rights violations,” Guidicelli said.

IPOPHL’s newest anti-piracy project is co-funded by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to address awareness gaps identified in a survey conducted by IPOPHL and WIPO in 2021.

Piracy, skewed to the youth THE Baseline Study on IP Awareness found that out of five age groups, it was the youngest that patronized pirated digital content the most.

“The worst and most challenging part sa pagkalat ng piracy is pati ang values ng ating kabataan napipirata [The worst and most challenging part in the proliferation of piracy is that the values of our youth are also being pirated off],” Barba added.

Out of 1,000 respondents, 35 percent, 31 percent, and 28 percent of those who respectively downloaded free music, video games and movies online and 14 percent of those who read free ebooks come from the youngest group segment, with ages 18 to 19. The group segment also sources free copies from their friends and Youtube.

According to the survey, some young respondents cited the ease in accessing free content compared to buying from authorized sellers, and that their peers do it anyway.

The baseline survey also assessed IPOPHL’s current awareness campaign online and found its previous content linked to a celebrity ambassador as having the most visibility and “potential to change behavior.”

Content pirates are thieves, robbing us of economic leverage, of our culture and of our own values of what is right, which is to play fair. It is high time we denounce content pirates the way we do thieves. And we are optimistic that with Matteo, Viva and WIPO working together with IPOPHL, the message becomes more compelling and urgent to embrace,“Deputy Director General Ann Claire C. Cabochan said.