The speed that Manny Pacquiao exhibited in his fight against Ricky Hatton was duplicated by video pirates in Manila who rushed to mass produce copies of the “Battle of East and West.”

A report on “Umagang Kay Ganda” noted that pirated DVDs of the fight were already available in Divisoria even before the local carrying station aired the fight Sunday afternoon.

ABS-CBN’s Gretchen Malalad also reported that pirated DVDs of the Pacquiao-Hatton fight were available in Quiapo, Manila several hours after the fight was shown live.

The pirated DVDs, costing P25 apiece (about $0.50), were selling like hotcakes because they were much cheaper than the entrance fees of cinemas and sports bars that showed the fight live. Tickets to such establishments cost more than P500 (about $10.47).

According to one DVD seller: “Hindi kami natatakot dahil laban naman yan ng Pambansang Kamao eh (We're not afraid because that's the fight of the National Fist-Pacquiao's moniker).”

Pirated DVD vendors also told ABS-CBN News that every time Pacquiao has a fight, copies of the bout are dropped off at their stands. But they did not disclose from whom or where the pirated DVDs come from.

They just assured that on Pacman’s next fight, they will certainly have copies of the match right away.

The Optical Media Board (OMB) admitted that it is hard to stop this kind of piracy because pirates can capture the video by using a camcorder, downloading live video streaming or using the video feed of the satellite dish attached to the pay-per-view.

“This is cable piracy. It becomes the OMB's concern only if the station who carried the fight complains," said OMB chairman Edu Manzano.

Last week, the United States retained the Philippines on the Special 301 program watch list on intellectual property rights due to the country's weakness in patent protection, failure to address digital piracy and inability to establish deterrence against such act.

In a report released Thursday (Friday in Manila), the US Trade Representative cited the need to address illegal camcording in the Philippines and piracy in the digital environment.

It noted that the government has not addressed peer-to-peer illegal camcording, piracy and mobile device piracy. With reports from Reuters, Umagang Kay Ganda and Gretchen Malalad, ABS-CBN News