MANILA: Manila customs commissioner argued that his bureau is only implementing the law if it starts opening balikbayan boxes. He may as well have said that buses never fall off Manila’s elevated highways, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport is the best in the world, the MRT is efficient and well-maintained, and we will elect the reincarnation of Lee Kuan Yew as our next president. Before letting the Bureau of Customs get away with claiming that it only implements the law, we should ask why it blatantly refuses to implement the 1952 tax exemption on imported books, among other rules.
My greatest frustration is when commentators mix political opinion into a discussion on a legal issue without being clear about it, from the Reproductive Health Act hearings to the present Torre de Manila litigation. However, it is equally frustrating when a government regulator attempts to reduce a social issue into a legal one, such as initially forcing Uber and Grabcar to conform to our dysfunctional taxi regulation regime instead of asking why the system is broken.
Customs officials must confront the broader issue of why no one trusts them and feels intimately violated when new Customs measures are announced. The blatantly illegal tax on books is the simplest case study. Recall the media uproar in 2012, when Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima publicly reiterated that imported books are exempt from Customs duties, particularly shipments for “personal use” of not more than six copies. The Philippines committed to this in 1952 under the United Nations Florence Agreement or “Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Materials.” Purisima reiterated this simple, clear exemption in Department of Finance Order No. 57-2011 and a press release in the government’s Official Gazette on Jan. 4, 2012.
