A Closure on the Great Book Blockade of 2009

Thanks to Rayvi Sunico for leading me to this link on DEPARTMENT ORDER NO. 57-2011
09 December 2011 at the Department of Finance website. It will greatly be of help to me as a school librarian ordering and acquiring imported books off shore. There's a downloadable PDF on the Florence Agreement which mentions that books bought by libraries are exempt from tax duties. But, of course.

As a government protocol, registration is the next step for libraries who wish to be exempt from tax duties.

My question is: Is it worth going through all the trouble of registration so that libraries can save from book purchases abroad?

New Guidelines of the Bureau of Customs

On the importation of books, the Bureau of Customs has issued new guidelines for the duty and free tax importation of books. Here's an introductory paragraph from the website of the National Book Development Board (NBDB) --

The Bureau of Customs recently issued Customs Memorandum Order No. 25-2011 or the Guidelines for the Duty and Tax Free Importation of Books. The said memorandum contains guidelines on the coverage and operational provisions of the duty and tax free importation of books under Section 105 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines for uniformity in the treatment of book importations.

The full article can be read here. Copy of the Customs Memorandum Order No. 25-2011 is downloadable form the NBDB website.

Book Blockade Over

The outgoing Philippine President has done a bit of good for this country.

Head on to this link for the official press release. Read the highlighted link for more information on the signed EO85.

TGBB 2009: News From The Grapevine

From a reliable source --

...the "suspension" is temporary. The duties/taxes are not rescinded, removed or lifted.

The battle is not yet over.

Lifting Book Duties

In a previous post about the The Great Book Blockade of 2009, I mentioned the silence that pervaded Filipino librarians on this side of the issue. While it is good to note that Filipino blograrians were up in arms to blog about TGBB 2009 in their individual capacity, there was no collective voice from professional associations or teachers of LIS to rally or petition the lifting of book duties. Unless, of course, I have not been looking at the right places. I can be wrong.

iRead2 put a fullstop on my musings through this post --

Now even if the duties were scrapped the common man would not be able still to get or even buy a book. There is still a need to develop other avenues by which everyone can avail of the book and one of this is develop our public library system. Promote and develop them.

Not everyone can afford to buy a book. Not everyone has a credit line to buy a book. This is where or this where a library, public or otherwise can fill the gap.

I'd like to think that most Filipino librarians are battling their own professional issues and problems that to make a noise on the TGBB is just too much to do for now. I would like to think that somewhere out there, Filipino Librarians are quietly transforming their libraries into places where the public can freely access information from printed and online media.

Breaking the Blockade

PGMA did one right decision today --

"Taxes on book imports lifted"
By Paolo Romero Updated May 25, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo ordered yesterday the
Department of Finance to scrap the taxes imposed on imported books and
reading material.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the directive was prompted by a
torrent of criticism on the move of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), which
is under the supervision of the finance department, to impose the
duties.

“President Arroyo ordered the immediate lifting of the customs duty on
book importation,” Remonde said in a text message to The STAR.

“The President wants books to be within reach of the common man. She
believes reading as an important value for intellectual formation,
which is the foundation of a healthy public opinion necessary for a
vibrant democracy,” he said.

More on the news at Philstar.com

Live Blogging: Reading, Writing and Storytelling

Mommy Chit and Mommy Rose listen attentively to May Tobias-Papa as she opines on reading vs. use of computers. We're now talking about he importance of read alouds at home. It's inevitable to talk about writing and not mention the important topic on reading. To write, one must read.

Timeline of the GBB09

Manuel L. Quezon III has a nifty timeline of the Great Book Blockade of 2009 (GBB09). That's where I learned that RockEd will be giving away free books on May 24, 2009. So, if you're somewhere near Roxas Boulevard on the given date, go and rally for books, reading and literacy.



It is also interesting to note that R. Hemley has written about the strength of Pinoy bloggers on bringing up this issue to the public. MLQ III has the links too. Now I wonder if PLAI, or any of the many Filipino Librarian's association in the country has a "say" on the GBB09.

Shhh. Silence please. You're in the library.

The Great Book Blockade of 2009

The Great Book Blockade of 2009 has made everyone in the book industry busy and noisy. The PBBY is actually coming up with its own stand on the plight of book taxation in the country. Elfren Cruz has written an essay in Business World about this.

Here's an excerpt.

Historically, in every slave-owning society (including the United States) slaves were not allowed to read. There was a period in European civilization when barbarians ruled and books were accessible in a few monasteries. This was aptly called the Dark Ages.

One of the saddest periods in the history of the Catholic church was the period of the Inquisition and the Index of Forbidden Books when again authorities decided what could and could not be read.

Alberto Managuel, in his book A History of Reading, wrote:

"As centuries of dictators have known, an illiterate crowd is easiest to rule; since the craft of reading cannot be untaught once it has been acquired, the second best recourse is to limit its scope. Therefore, like no other human creation, books have been the bane of dictatorships. Absolute power requires that all reading be official reading, instead of whole libraries of opinions, the ruler’s words should suffice."

Throughout history, man’s search to know his world and himself has been through the written word conveyed in books. Perhaps it may be difficult for most politicians to comprehend, but the truth is that words and wisdom, written in books, have the power to change our lives much more than roads, bridges, and ambulances financed by pork barrel funds.

For the full article, read Mr. Cruz here.

Live Blogging: Day 2 of the SAS Teacher Training In Donsol

The teacher participants are early today. It's 7:45AM and the hall is almost filled. And yes, the nervousness has ebbed. I feel calm and relaxed like the placid sea this morning.

We ended the day yesterday with a fun activity, Dress the Character. Jojo Pagsibigan effectively handled the session while the participants responded in full force. Today, we'll have more activities since it's output day. Pictures to follow. Promise!

Live Blogging: SAS Teacher Training In Donsol

The flight to Legazpi was on schedule despite the cloudy skies and gloomy weather in Manila. Family and friends sent text messages of heavy rains and a storm brewing up in the North last night. But it's a sunny day here in Donsol, Sorsogon and the SAS Teacher Training is all set to begin forty minutes from now.

It is a far cray from the physical set up that Petron and SAS organize in Manila, but that does not matter. The Read-A-Thon is a grass roots program that includes teacher training so they can implement the month long reading program that SAS has developed since 1998.

It's my first time to be lead trainor without the presence of the senior master trainors. I am nervous.

Will blog about more of our Donsol adventures later.

All In The Name Of Reading

* This is alarming. No byline came from the forwarded email, but it's from a reputable e-group I subscribe to. Besides, I have friends and connections in the publishing industry and all have bewailed the sad state of taxing imported books.

In the last few months, the importation of books into the Philippines
has virtually stopped. (To those of you who frequent bookstores, I
don't know if you've noticed.) The reason why is explained in this
article by Robin Hemley, a University of Iowa creative writing
professor currently on a fellowship in the Philippines.

If you have no time to read the article, the essence is that because
the Bureau of Customs has decided to impose duties on the importation
of books into the Philippines.

This, despite the 1950 Florence Agreement on the Importation of
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials (which you can see
here), which the Philippines ratified in 1979. The preamble of the
agreement states: "Considering that the free exchange of ideas and
knowledge and, in general, the widest possible dissemination of the
diverse forms of self-expression used by civilizations are vitally
important both for intellectual progress and international
understanding, and consequently for the maintenance of world
peace...", an indisputable proposition.

Here's an excerpt from Robin Hemley's article (i shortened it a bit.
better if you can read the whole thing.) -

...Over coffee one afternoon, a book-industry professional (whom I can't
identify) told me that for the past two months virtually no imported
books had entered the country, in part because of the success of one
book, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. The book, an international best
seller, had apparently attracted the attention of customs officials.
When an examiner named Rene Agulan opened a shipment of books, he
demanded that duty be paid on it.

The importer of Twilight made a mistake and paid the duty requested. A
mistake because such duty flies in the face of the Florence Agreement,
a U.N. treaty that was signed by the Philippines in 1952, guaranteeing
the free flow of "educational, scientific, and cultural materials"
between countries and declaring that imported books should be
duty-free. Mr. Agulan told the importer that because the books were
not educational( i.e., textbooks) they were subject to duty. Perhaps
they aren't educational, I might have argued, but aren't they
"cultural"?
No matter. With this one success under their belt, customs curtailed
all air shipments of books entering the country. Weeks went by as
booksellers tried to get their books out of storage and started
intense negotiations with various government officials.

What doubly frustrated booksellers and importers was that the
explanations they received from various officials made no sense. It
was clear that, for whatever reasonâ€"perhaps the 30-billion-peso
($625 million) shortfall in projected customs revenueâ€"customs would
go through the motions of having a reasonable argument while in fact
having none at all.

Customs Undersecretary Espele Sales explained the government's
position to a group of frustrated booksellers and importers in an
Orwellian PowerPoint presentation, at which she reinterpreted the
Florence Agreement as well as Philippine law RA 8047, providing for
"the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be
used in book publishing." For lack of a comma after the word "books,"
the undersecretary argued that only books "used in book publishing"
(her underlining) were tax-exempt.

"What kind of book is that?" one publisher asked me afterward. "A book
used in book publishing." And she laughed ruefully.

I thought about it. Maybe I should start writing a few. Harry the
Cultural and Educational Potter and His Fondness for Baskerville Type.

Likewise, with the Florence Agreement, she argued that only
educational books could be considered protected by the U.N. treaty.
Customs would henceforth be the arbiter of what was and wasn't
educational.

"For 50 years, everyone has misinterpreted the treaty and now you
alone have interpreted it correctly?" she was asked.

"Yes," she told the stunned booksellers.

Throughout February and March, bookstores seemed on the verge of
getting their books releasedâ€"all their documents were in order, but
the rules kept changing. Now they were told that all books would be
taxed: 1 percent for educational books and 5 percent for
noneducational books. A nightmare scenario for the distributors; they
imagined each shipment being held for months as an examiner sorted
through the books. Obviously, most would simply pay the higher tax to
avoid the hassle.

Distributors told me they weren't "capitulating" but merely paying
under protest. After all, customs was violating an international
treaty that had been abided by for over 50 years. Meanwhile,
booksellers had to pay enormous storage fees. Those couldn't be
waived, they were told, because the storage facilities were privately
owned (by customs officials, a bookstore owner suggested ruefully).
One bookstore had to pay $4,000 on a $10,000 shipment.

The day after the first shipment of books was released, an internal
memo circulated in customs congratulating themselves for finally
levying a duty on books, though no mention was made of their pride in
breaking an international treaty...