Book Tax. Because one is never enough.

If you haven’t heard, our brilliant government has found yet another way to add more cash into their insatiable pockets. Imported books will now be taxed! Yes, all those shiny sparkly books that do not belong in the Filipiniana section, will be taxed. As if books weren’t pricey enough as they are! I think it is revenge to the reading public for getting too smart for the government to fool these days. Because we should be good citizens and watch them shiny game shows, and thought-provoking telenovelas, instead of reading these stupid nose-bleed inducing imported books.

Here’s a source article that was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which is based on a blog entry by Robin Hemley. Both articles would basically give you a gist of the events that led to what is now called The Great Book Blockade of 2009. Spoiler of these articles: No foreign books entered the country for two months. I had no idea what was up then, apparently it was the great, brilliant Customs Undersecretary Espele Sales and minions at work. There was this time early this year that bookstores kept telling me they were “out of stock” of these new books…thus leading me to eBooks. But that’s another story. As much as I’m inclined to blame Stephenie Meyer’s contribution to this blockade, I won’t. Because the problem at hand is greed, and these insatiable money whores. Yes, I’ll watch the language.

So here’s the gist of the entire thing. One one fine day, a high demand for the Twilight series (books) comes in, the customs sees it, and then wonders: “How do we [personally] benefit from this?” Since getting their own free copy of all books, hardbound and signed, as much as they want, is not enough. No comment on that. Thus, they decide to tax the big shipment! Tax which, at that moment, is non-existent, therefore in my own opinion, not really tax. It’s extortion. The importer, being unaware of that, [*sad*] complied without question. This little thing pleases them to their version of the high heavens, and realizes that if they can fool/trick/[insert appropriate word here] one importer, maybe they can do the same to everyone! Yay! Thus the re-interpretation of the FLORENCE AGREEMENT, and RA8047. Thanks to the lack of punctuation marks, the interpretation that the general public (or those aware of it) was incorrect, and I am “happy” to share that our very own Customs Undersecretary Espele Tagle and company, are the only ones who actually got them right. Now isn’t that lovely? Now thanks to their supreme intellect, all books stuck in warehouses, as well as those coming in, would have to be taken into account, to be charged for taxes. Thus longer waiting time for hungry readers, and higher prices on books. Because reading is something this lovely government should NOT support -apparently. And why should they? The smarter the citizens get, the more trouble the corrupt powers-that-be will be! I mean, their anomalies are exposed enough as it is, why help people get smarter? We’ll all be too knowledgeable for them! *sigh* The BDAP (The Book Development Association of the Philippines) has taken action on this issue, which you can read here. 

As a book lover, I think that this entry is clear enough on my stand on this issue. The Florence Agreement, and RA8047 has been in effect for decades. Why are they changing it now? What good reason have they got? Another thing to tax? Seriously? I think that we already have enough means of getting money into the government funds. This looks to me like another scam to get more money into undeserving peoples’ already full pockets. Seriously, this is why we don’t flourish. Because of people like them, who think of how they’re gonna bloat their bursting pockets instead of thinking and doing more substantial things. It’s things like these that makes me think of getting a life outside this country, because it honestly seems hopeless. Finding one corrupt government worker after the other. The question isn’t who is corrupt in this system, but who isn’t? What now? Would you tax eBooks and downloadable Audio Books as well?

Here are some links to get you immersed into this issue:

The National Book Development Board

If you happen to be on Facebook, please join, support, and invite people to this cause:

Filipinos Against Taxation of Books by Customs