May

15

Great Philippine Book Blockade of 2009: What You Can Do

Filed Under Books | 3 Comments

To recap:

The Philippine government is in violation of an international treaty called the Florence Agreement of 1950 and Nairobo Protocol of 1976. Since the Philippines is a signatory to this agreement, they are bound to follow it. What is this agreement about?

Basically, all books imported into the country should be tax free.

Apparently that is not the case. I’m sure many of you would have that experience of being taxed at the post office if you order books from abroad. Sometimes with amounts MORE than the cost of the book itself.

The government has produced all sorts of rules, laws, and regulations in an effort to justify their taxation of books, but no matter legal machinations to keep the tax money coming in from books, the bottom line is that they are in violation of an International Treaty, which supercedes everything else.

Matters came to a head when matters escalated on a massive scale when new books for the nation’s booksellers stopped coming in due to an embargo by customs officials demanding fees for the books. The books were only released when the booksellers, facing massive losses, caved in and paid the fees.

In an effort to justify the fees and the circumvention of the Florence agreement, Finance Undersecretary Espele Sales said that “novels and reading books are not educational.”

More info here, here, and a timeline here.

All right, what can you do about it? Joining the Facebook group is fine, but a more aggressive approach is required.

As Robin Hemley points out in his recent blog post, you can write to UNESCO.

http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal/processing/forms/contact/en/form.php

This is after all, a violation of an International treaty and thus requiring international intervention.

Marvic Leonen, Dean of UP Law School is going to be filing a legal case and needs all the evidence he can get. If you have a receipt from the post office or customs, which proves that they asked you to pay tax for books imported from abroad, please gather them up and send an email to chingbee(dot)cruz(at)gmail(dot)com

At Twitter, Manuel L. Quezon III has listed several more things that one can do:

1. Text/fax/postcard executive officials, supporting appeal of Rep. Locsin to the President to rescind book tax, and supporting, too …

2. Write a letter to the editor of a daily newspaper expressing your concern about the book tax. Demand coverage of the issue.

3. Phone/fax/text a TV network about your concern about the book tax.

4. E-mail UNESCO condemning the book tax.

5. Recruit a Filipino friend to the Cause, and inform a foreign friend about what’s going on.

6. Sign on to a lawsuit if the President won’t listen to the appeal to rescind the book tax.

7. Participate in Rock Ed’s Book Giveaway Activity, Baywalk, 3-6 pm May 24.

Comments

3 Responses to “Great Philippine Book Blockade of 2009: What You Can Do”

  1. Will You Join the Alliance to Restore the Florence Agreement in The Philippines? | Filipino Voices on May 15th, 2009 3:49 pm

    [...] UPDATE: Also you might want to checkout @komikero: The Great Philippine Book Blockade of 2009. What can you do? http://gerry.alanguilan.com/archives/1468 [...]

  2. Maia on May 16th, 2009 1:14 am

    Thank you very much for signing the petition. My mother is currently helping me draft a letter to the Senate which will be forwarded to Miriam Santiago. The link to the petition will be included so the senators who are investigating this matter will be informed that people around the world and not just the Philippines have gotten wind of this issue.

  3. zencatt on May 17th, 2009 6:26 am

    “The recent decision by the Philippine Department of Finance and Customs Bureau to impose duties on imported books contradicts the spirit of the long standing ‘Florence Treaty’ and puts an unduly harsh burden on the average Filipino who seeks to participate in the worldwide free expression of ideas. UNESCO should vigorously oppose this unjust taxation.” …my email to UNESCO hehe