Resolution of "Book Blockade" issue

Last March 24, 2009, the Department of Finance Order No. 17-09 was implemented which contained guidelines on duty-free importation of books allowed under existing laws and international agreements.

The public together with some senators have questioned this new Bureau of Customs (BOC) position on a provision in Republic Act 8047, or the Book Publishing Industry Development Act of 1995, previously used as basis for tax- or duty-free importation of books.

Not only will the new BOC interpretation allow for new taxes for imported books for importers. Book lovers and Philippine education, dependent on imported books due to the scarcity of locally written and published books, will also be adversely affected as importers may stop or limit the importation of books or they may pass on the taxes to the readers.

According to the news, the protesters “focused on Finance Undersecretary Espele Sales who upheld the BOC Sales backed the BOC’s claim that there was no provision in RA 8047 granting tax-free book importation and that there would be “tax- and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing.”

This BOC stance, according to the critics, including Senator Miriam Santiago, violated the 1950 Florence Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials, which the Philippines signed in 1952. The said treaty allowed for the duty-free importation of books to guarantee the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials” between countries and declared that imported books should be duty-free.

We welcome the interest of several Senators in this book blockade issue and we hope that a speedy clarification and withdrawal of the BOC March 2009 rule is made.

Like the critics, we are interested to know why the Department of Finance and the BOC implemented this March 24, 2009 order.

If the intention was to raise taxes, why single out books that are very crucial for the education and development of an informed citizenry?

If the intention is to raise the customs collection, experience and verified reports have shown that much of the problems with customs collections is internal - much have to do with so-called graft and corruption within their offices. Why pass on the blame of low tax collections on the reading public?

In the midst of the global crisis affecting our people, why impose unnecessary tax on books? Why don’t government officials instead think of cost-cutting, starting from their salaries to pork barrels to foreign trips, rather than allow BOC to impose more taxes on the reading public?

Reports mentioned “that the imposition of Customs duties on imported books has reportedly caused book importers to reconsider future importations due to higher costs. Foreign books have become more expensive and are now in danger of becoming scarce or completely unavailable in local bookstores, according to those opposing the BOC plan.”

We agree with Senators Edgardo Angara, Manuel Roxas II and Richard Gordon joined Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and the other protesters that a responsible “government must promote reading and make it a part of every Filipino’s lifestyle rather than make books more inaccessible. “

Is it the intention of the BOC order to create a nation of non-book readers, a nation of unintelligent citizens that irresponsible politicians can just buy votes from or who will not question any abuse that government will do?

Let us all be vigilant about how this “book blockade” issue progresses. The sooner the BOC order is recalled, the better for our people’s education and our nation.

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