ONE of kibitzer Jose’s snoops at the Office of Ombudsman Conchita Capio-Morales recently got wind of a complaint sent to her by employees of the Optical Media Board who obviously are not fans of action star- turned-OMB-chairman Ronnie Ricketts.

The employees’ gripe has to do with a couple of raids that OMB agents, backed by Philippine National Police members, conducted last year at a place that yielded fake and/or pirated DVDs and VCDs.

In the first raid last May, seized were 127 boxes and two sacks of pirated DVD and VCD materials and one Video Recording Human IPC used in the replication of optical media stuffs found at a place on Carlos Palanca St., Quiapo, Manila.

Three Chinese nationals were supposedly arrested by the OMB-PNP raiding team. The confiscated items were brought to the OMB headquarters. However, there was no mention of the apprehended Chinese nationals also being detained there.

Based on the copy of the complaint Jose was allowed to read, by some kind of actual (not cinematic hocus pocus), later that night of the raid, all the seized items were brought out of the OMB office by a certain Glen Perez together with unidentified individuals.

No one at the OMB, not even the security guard on duty at that time, knows or wants to know who exactly Perez is, neither will anybody say if OMB Administrator Evelyn Asoy authorized the release of the DVDs, VCDs, and replicating machine.

The other subject of the OMB employees’ complaint involves the “mysterious disappearance” of a confiscated box of assorted adult DVDs and child pornographic movies as well as eight replicating machines being used without the required permits.

These were seized during an “inspection in July” of the Philippine Global Optical Media Corp. in the Berthaphil compound, a locator at Clark Economic Zone in Pampanga. It’s reportedly owned by Oca Maglalang and a certain Mr. Kho.

Both Maglalang and Kho allegedly have been blacklisted by OMB and, despite the complaint filed with the Ombudsman, the company continues to operate while the missing child porno materials have purportedly found their way to the DVD and VCD players of countless voyeurs in the country.

I reckon that had OMB chief Ricketts promptly told President Noynoy Aquino about it, P-Noy would have lost no time in yelling “CUT!” to the sale of the contraband in question. Yeah, going by the Palace action in Political Adviser Ronnie Llamas’ getting caught on candid camera buying P2,000 worth of “unoriginal” DVDs, kibitzer Jose adds.

Well, the ball is now in the hands of Madam Carpio-Morales and Audit Commission Chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan, who was provided a copy of the complaint. In tandem, they’re doubly expected by the OMB employees to holler “CUT!” on whoever in the Board would be found to be taking a cut on dirty profits of the die-hard underground DVD and VCD industry.