Bitten by the Fangs of Taxes!

I am so ANGRY!!! So angry that I really hyperventilated and have to douse my temper with a quick shower first before writing this blog. If you love books and/or concerned about the literacy of your children and this nation as a whole then read on…

I just learned from my friend’s blog and from Inquirer.Net that our dear Government has once again lost its already non-existent heart by putting additional taxes on imported books – a total breach of the international treaty, the Florence Agreement that says books – educational or non-educational – should be imported in all nations tax-free! The Philippines signed this treaty in 1952 and Filipino bibliophiles like me have been enjoying this free flow of knowledge up until a Customs Official decided to take a bite on the importer of Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling novel, “Twilight”.

In classic crab mentality fashion, the novel came into the consciousness of the customs after seeing that the book has been flying off shelves and shipments have increased dramatically. True to corrupt form, customs decided on its nth shipment that the importer should start paying duties. Oblivious of the treaty and to avoid any hassle, the importer decided to pay the said “anomalous” duties without saying a word. What the importer thought was an act of good citizenship turned out to be an extortion, which ultimately gave unfounded power to the government to cast yet another tax law on what’s supposed to be FREE. With the elections soon in our midst, you can’t help any concerned citizen from suspecting that this might just be another coy tactic by the government to fill up the campaign coffers. Argh!

This issue is really below the belt for me because I give credit to books for shaping who and how I am right now. As a young child growing up in slow developing Davao in the ‘80s and tending a broken heart from my parents’ split, books were my magic carpet into my alternate realities. Books made me see the world vicariously. Books molded my mind and stirred my spirit. Growing up in a small town gave me limited access to literature. So getting a book was always like finding a treasure when I was growing up. Thanks to paradises like Powerbooks and Amazon, people who have been hungry for the sophisticated written word were able to get their fill. Soon enough, more specialty bookstores opened and the love for reading lived on.

With this new law, what’s going to happen to our nation’s already ailing literacy? This just doesn’t concern bookworms like me. Levying books – whatever genre they are – is a clear violation of everyone’s right to knowledge. Books have already been very expensive here in the Philippines to begin with. In fact, I know a lot of people who have put themselves on book diets. By that I don’t mean that these people have stopped reading for the sake of eating. It’s actually the other way around and good for them!

I’m still researching more on this atrocity. Please check out the following links below to educate you more about this issue. We should not take this lightly. We’ve been burdened with unreasonable taxes for so long now and this time they have taken it too far. Blog about this. Forward this message. Do your share to preserve the freedom to fill up the Filipinos’ shelves with books. And help fan the dying embers of world-class literacy and the love for higher learning.

Robin Hemley's "The Great Book Blockade of 2009"
Must-read thread about the issue on Philippine Genre Stories
Bibliophile Stalker's essay on the issue