SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian has filed a bill seeking the abolition of the Optical Media Board (OMB), arguing that the agency’s mandate has become outdated as piracy and intellectual property violations have largely shifted from physical media to digital platforms. Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, stated that the OMB was established to address piracy involving optical media, such as compact discs and digital versatile discs, which are no longer the primary means of distributing copyrighted content. “Designed for a disc-based piracy economy, the OMB is no longer the optimal agency to address the challenges of a digital age,” Gatchalian said in filing Senate Bill (SB) 1654. Instead of maintaining an agency whose core functions no longer align with current technological realities, Gatchalian said government resources would be better directed toward institutions equipped to respond to modern forms of intellectual property violations, particularly online piracy. “It would be better to allocate funds to agencies that are capable of responding to the challenges of modern technology and the digital economy,” he said, stressing that the proposal would promote more efficient use of public funds. Under SB 1654, the powers, functions and resources of the OMB would be transferred to the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (Ipophl). The measure also provides for the absorption of OMB Secretariat employees into Ipophl or other appropriate government offices, without any reduction in salaries, benefits or tenure. Gatchalian said consolidating OMB functions under Ipophl would streamline intellectual property enforcement, allowing the government to focus on combating digital piracy, including illegal streaming, online file-sharing and other internet-based infringements. Ipophl already has broad authority over intellectual property rights protection, policy coordination and enforcement, which, he said, would be strengthened by the transfer. The proposed abolition of the OMB is also in line with the government’s broader rationalization efforts aimed at reducing overlapping mandates among agencies and improving efficiency in the bureaucracy, Gatchalian noted. If enacted, the measure would formally end the OMB’s operations while reinforcing Ipophl’s role as the central agency for intellectual property protection in the country, particularly in the rapidly evolving digital environment.