Is that the official stance of those who manufacture such disks and who implement such rules? Say, WB Philippines?
Can't speak for the manufacturers, but can put in what I've observed thus far about this
DVD Region Issue.
First off, for DVD, WB Philippines is a distributor and not a manufacturer. They fall into the same category for DVD as MagnaVision (Columbia Tristar, Paramount, etc), Monami (Touchstone, Buena Vista), Viva (MGM, Disney), C-Interactive (New Line) and others that I'm not aware of. As distributor, they distribute what they ask from their principals or parent companies and what these ask them to.
The manufacturers would be the studios or their respective DVD divisions. The region coding was agreed upon at the onset of DVD several years back primarily to solve the problem of different worldwide release dates and language requirements.
We happen to be a Region 3 country that speaks English, has an NTSC TV system and US movie release dates not too far off from the US. That's why R1 DVD's are "widely" available here as it is. This was further confirmed by the LOTR FOTR R1 release here.
The only thing that makes the LOTR release here different from the other R1's locally available is that it has a VRB sticker signifying that duties, taxes and whatever necessary red tape has been complied with.
This has shown us that Region Coding is not a steadfast rule but as it has been from the beginning, a policy of DVD manufacturers and distributors. At this stage of the international market place, borders for goods are more porous - anybody with internet access and a credit card can order anything online and have it shipped to their doorstep.
With the "ease" of converting DVD players to multi-region capability nullifying the wanted effects of Region Coding, then this policy becomes more difficult to enforce. So, why bother with region coding in a market like ours.