crazy cat is crazy.

talagang crazy

ok lang kung paminsan minsan

color themed kitties

meow

smashing the blockade

finally the great book blockade is now officially over.
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/162415/Unesco-opposes-RP-move-to-tax-imported-books/_/2/

ngitngit

kapag ika'y nag-ngingitngit sa galit,
at mistulang nakapikit,
lumayo ka na lang muna
baka ika'y makasakit.

The Great Book Blockade of 2009.

(image from rusty banana forge)

While listening to Good times on Magic 89.9, i heard Mojo talk about "The Great Book Blcokade of 2009." which is about the taxation of imported books here in the Philippines.

This made me do a thorough research (google search =P ) about the matter and here are some points to ponder:

• The Philippines is one of the many countries to sign the Florence Agreement, a UN treaty wherein a part (Article I sec 1.a) states that books of any nature are protected from custom tax or any other charges for that matter.
• Customs Undersecretary Espele Sales contested the agreement above by citing republic act 8047 sec 12. stating that "In the case of tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing, the Board and its duly authorized representatives shall strictly monitor the quality and volume of imported books and materials as well as their distribution and the utilization of the said imported materials", for the lack of comma after the word "books" she was pointing out that only "books used in book publishing" are tax exempted. (see "The Great Book Blcokade of 2009." by Robin Hemley)
• The above interpretation of the law is a breach of the Florence agreement and by no means should be able to supersede the said UN agreement.
  
• All books imported to the Philippines whether for resale or personal use will have a customs tax attached to it.
  

I really don't understand what would be the benefit of this law to the Filipino people. I find this law counter-productive, and should be abolished or amended as soon as possible.

*Please also read the very informative comments from this blog post (Philippine Genre Stories)
*Kudos to Manuel L Quezon III for the great timeline research here

i'm no little white mop

unsolved mystery

it was 5:45pm, i just sent a message to mushy.

15minutes later i left the office,
went down the elevator,
out of the building,
into the parking lot.

as i press the remote,
the car acknowledge with a tutut.
i started it up,
payed my parking fee.

as i was speeding the highway that was edsa,
i felt the urge, as i usually do.
to reach for my pockets and retrieve my phone.
Lo and behold, i felt no bulge!

my mind went in reverse,
back tracking to were i last remember the image of my phone.
i see my hand, my phone, my desk.
i started to calm down.
my phone can stay for the night away at my sight.

the following morning,
i learned several things,
at a very expensive price.

isang tulog na lang...