Book Blockade of the Philippines

Books are an integral aspect for the lives of many geeks all over the world: Pen-and-paper RPG players carry around thick tomes of rules, graphic novels are part of many comic book collections, and of course, most geeks keep copies (some would say hordes) of literary works both classic and contemporary.  Even with the boom of the Internet well underway, nothing beats the feeling of perusing your books, flipping page after page as you digest its content.

However, the acquiring of books just got a lot tougher for pinoy geeks an gamers. Until recently, we’ve experienced relatively affordableand accessible books, thanks to the Florence Agreement, a U.N. treaty that was signed by the Philippines way back in 1952. It aims to promote the circulation of educational, cultural, and scientific maerials between countries; among the benefits that the import such materials should be duty-free.

The Philipinnes’ brilliant Customs officials have recently bagan to disregard the Florence agreement, a story that I first read over at Philippine Genre Stories. Apparently, the clause that allows them to “legally” subject the books to duty is ambiguous:

“…the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing.”

It seems pretty clear, right? But apparently, since the law was not written as,”…the tax and duty-free importation of books, or raw materials to be used in book publishing” (note the comma) means that only books to be used in book publishing should be duty-free.

Clearly, the pinoy gaming community cannot stand for such an inane interpretation of a law. We should take a stand for this, and not let government corruption taint the essence of our beloved books.

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