A Practical Approach To The Duties On Books

The Bibliophile Stalker shares his practical approach to those duties still being levied on books brought in from abroad by individual buyers. An excerpt:

There are some things which I want to clarify: this is not (just) the book blockade. For the most part, the book blockade centered on importers of books, namely the distributors and bookstores. That aspect was successfully fended off (for now). The issue of arbitrary taxing of individuals at the post office is a separate issue, and was not championed by Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr.

Instead, the cause against this arbitrary taxing was taken up by UP Law Dean Marvic Leonen. Unfortunately, this case hasn't been resolved (and with the news, it seems that people intending on taxing citizens for books have escalated the conflict). Chingbee Cruz and Dean Marvic Leonen needs your receipts for proof against this corruption. Sadly, after the "success" of repealing the book blockade, coverage on this issue died down (and few people listened to me when I said that these are two separate issues).

I'd like to think I'm a practical person so here are my solutions to the "problem", depending on what you want to accomplish:

Click here to read his whole piece.