Over at Manuel Quezon III's blog, I saw this very depressing article, about Customs suddenly imposing tariff on books like Twilight.
I have a short description for this: Things that sell good in the Philippines will be milked (by government)
"Stephenie Meyer’s novel “Twilight” apparently did so well in the bookstores that the number of copies being imported attracted the attention of a Customs official. Examiner Rene Agulan decreed that duties be paid. It seems that the importer of the book reacted in a manner familiar to most book lovers in the country: to eliminate the hassle, the importer complied with the Customs levy on the title."
This is the worst part: "Take the official’s interpretation of the following sentence in RA 8047 (the Book Publishing Industry Development Act): “the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing.” According to Sales, this lacked a comma after the word “books,” which meant that what was tax and duty-free was only books used for book publishing."
OMG.
http://www.quezon.ph/2009/05/04/the-long-view-the-great-book-blockade-of-2009/
