THE furor raised by the reported plan to tax imported books to raise additional revenues and cut down government defi­cit was a shocking initia­tive.

THE disastrous landslides in Itogon, Benguet and Naga City in Cebu triggered by heavy rains brought about by supertyphoon Ompong which claimed some 150 lives aside from over 60 more missing, may have indeed been miti­gated or avoided had there been an effective and efficient disaster management agency in place.

LACKING other intelligent options to raise govern­ment revenues, some lawmak­ers now connive with Finance official to impose taxes on imported books and further degrade the country’s literacy level.