Crackdown cuts by half prices of Hayden sex videos

MANILA, Philippines – As the sex scandal of embattled celebrity doctor Hayden Kho Jr. continues to rage, the pirated DVD business sparked by it seemed to be fizzling out with the help of local police authorities. Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, commander of the Manila Police District (MPD) Station 3, said that on the week the sex controversy made the news, merchants in underground markets in Manila’s Quiapo district immediately flaunted their low-quality copies of the sex footage for sale between P200 to P300 a copy. More than a week after the DVDs hit stores, however, prices of the DVDs featuring Kho in his sexual encounters with several women including Katrina Halili started plummeting to between P75 to P100. Prices of regular counterfeit DVDs are pegged between P50 to P80. Sapitula, in a radio report, attributed the dwindling sales of the illegal merchants to the concerted efforts of police authorities and the Optical Media Board. Since last week, members of the MPD have set out on a daily raid on the illegal stalls lining up along Hidalgo Street. Over a six-day period, from Thursday last week to Wednesday, the MPD had seized over 50,000 copies of pornographic discs, including those of Hayden’s sex videos. Apart from the government’s effort to stamp out disc piracy, the fact that Hayden’s sex videos had already become readily available on the Internet has prompted curious viewers to opt for downloading the files free of charge and sharing them with friends, instead of buying pirated DVDs. During the first few days since the controversy erupted, vendors of pirated DVDs were riding high on sales with authorities unable to effect a crackdown. This was due to the fact that police and the OMB cannot seize pirated DVDs whose contents had not yet been copyrighted. The OMB said that a party should first file a formal complaint and claim copyright ownership to a video content before authorities could swoop down on the markets and confiscate them. Last week, Halili went to the Professional Regulation Commission to file a complaint seeking to revoke the license of Kho. The National Bureau of Investigation has begun conducting its investigation on the scandal. Kho, partner Dr. Victoria “Vicki" Belo, and friends Erik Johnston Chua, and Bistek Rosario have all been subpoenaed by the NBI. Even the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency had jumped in the picture to investigate the “illegal drug" angle of the controversy, after reports circulated that Kho and Halili were into drug use at the time the videos were recorded. The Senate committee on youth, women, and family relations on Thursday is set to commence its own investigation, with Hayden’s camp already expressing willingness to participate in the probe. On Tuesday, the OMB and the Bureau of Customs confiscated P300-million worth of replicating machines used in the mass production of counterfeit discs. - GMANews.TV