In March 24, 2009, the Department of Finance released Department Order No. 17-09, which imposes restrictions on the importation of books into the Philippines. It violates the Florence Agreement, an international law that was put in place after World War II for the express intention to build nations and culture by enabling a free flow of knowledge and learning through entry of books to any country, duty-free.

Banned books

Rather than seeing this as an opportunity to build the nation by building its greatest resource—the citizens themselves, the Philippine government decided lately to be different. It goes without saying that it is laudable to make a stand in principles of good government. Why not be a crusader against the trafficking of Filipinas? Or why not clamp down on the continued smuggling of natural resources to foreign countries? Or enforce environmental regulations on factories dumping wastes on our seas. Etcetera, etcetera ad infinitum! And to think the laws in these cases do not need reinterpretation. They just simply have to be enforced.

Land smuggling in the Philippines

But it appears that we have not reached our self-imposed quota of stupid law enforcement. The Philippines is a proud maverick among nations in the view that book imports should be a source of government revenue. Never mind if there are a plethora of sensible ways to raise government revenue.  The finance officials just had to choose the restriction of books! Is it because book business owners are not militant and won’t cause a flying fig to affect popular opinion? Of all opportunities to make a stand and be Frodo-the-Ringbearer in the international community, MALI PA!

In short, the Department of Finance decided to re-interpret the Florence Agreement.  Basically, this reinterpretation calls for the following: a 1% duty for books that are educational, technical, scientific, historical or cultural and a 5% duty for books other than educational, technical, scientific, historical or cultural and those books or raw materials are not to be used for book publishing but are intended for sale, barter or hire. Books belonging to the first class that are for non-profit purposes can supposedly be brought in duty-free.

What if you imported books and you insist that the books you got are educational and for non-profit purposes? The DOF is very proficient in turning the verification process into an obstacle course so that frustration stops you from pursuing the issue. So you are now in the most exciting part–you have to go through the DepEd and CHED and argue your case because determining the classification of your books depends on them! For some reason, I will not be surprised if in the event you prevail upon DepEd and CHED, your next stop will be the DENR—the reason is still being invented at the moment because of an ongoing reinterpretation of the law. This is your cue to laugh uncontrollably.

HOW THE LAW WORKS: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Last April, a teacher-friend of mine bought some books abroad and sent them to the Philippines in advance, even before she herself flew back to the country. One shipment was delivered at the school she works for while the other one was strangely held in customs.  So she sent a messenger to pick it up and found out that customs wants duties paid for the books. Upon getting this feedback from the messenger, she talked to the customs official over the phone and quizzically asked about this so-called new rule.

Now the customs official burst into a tirade, expressing her displeasure of being doubted by my teacher-friend. In short, ayaw ng opisyal na pinaghihinalaan siya. If you ask me, it will always remain an enigma that the unscrupulous are the ones who want to be known for the most scruples.  My teacher-friend, being the law abiding person that she is, told the customs official that she does not mind paying what is due because this is the law. She said that she just wanted clarification because this was the first time she heard about the suspension of duty-free status of imported books.

A maze of books

While the messenger was already waiting for the receipt for the amount paid, the customs official somehow found out that my teacher-friend is the wife of a high ranking worker in another government institution. So she sheepishly said, “ikaw naman, bakit hindi mo naman sinabi kaagad. Eh gobyerno din pala kayo. Pero sorry… nagawa na yung resibo.”

What budget allocation can cure this malady of the soul that stops us from seeing that learning is important?! While neighboring countries are fighting, tooth and nail, to give their citizens an edge in learning and education, we are lost in the duty-free debate of book imports!

RESTRICT RIZAL?

Here’s another interesting implication of violating the Florence Agreement. Aside from making us more stupid and exceeding even the expectations of Jagor and Foreman, the Department Order has the potential to restrict the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo!

According to the blog of Manuel L. Quezon III, Since the Noli and Fili are considered “imported novels” when published by international publication houses, the novels get the classification of non-educational.

Banned Noli Me Tangere

DUH!!! And double DUH!!! If you want to join the DOF, you must sharpen your skills of reinterpreting the law because this is going to be the hippest finance strategy in town! This is again an example of the systematic effort to keep us slaves by encouraging a culture of non-reading and non-thinking people. As of late, the teaching of the life and works of Rizal is getting battered. College students are made to trivialize the greater picture to focus on his love life or his alleged siring of German and Japanese fascists.

Recently, one student shared that her college professor taught that the title, Noli Me Tangere, was just simply a reverse psychology marketing ploy—because of the meaning “touch me not”—to sell the novel and hence that is why Rizal must be appreciated for his entrepreneurial genius!  The classmates of this student actually finished the subject with sentiments of derision towards our national hero.

Given this picture, can you imagine what happens if publications on Rizal are restricted in the country just because of the brilliant reinterpretation of our finance officials?

Conclusion

A society’s culture regarding books, reading and learning, is a very good indicator of its future.

If books are sick, absent and banned, our future will be in the same direction. No country ever rose without a desire for the wisdom to live right in life. But no country ever had wisdom without a path of learning. In turn, there would be no path of learning, without good books. Good books would be impossible if there were no decisions towards discovery of identity, no reformation of the soul, no inspiration of the heart and lastly, no love for fellow man. Babalik nanaman tayo sa salitang, malasakit.  The country’s leaders may not have it. But we, the people can start a new journey. Let us start from the very beginning. Someday, this country will have an explosion of books, bookstores, and libraries as a reflection of a new generation that made decisions towards discovery of identity, love for country, and plain malasakit for fellow Filipinos.

~Apolinariang Binibini