good morning???

i'll be damned. went to the post office first thing today at nia road in quezon city to claim the package of DVDs my brother ordered online. there was not much fuss in processing the documents to prove that i was an authorized representative; no grumpy government employee. the one who attended to me even called me 'mahal'. she asked, "first time mo mag-claim?" to which i replied yes. i saw two small boxes that contained the dvd's, i surmised there could be about two sets of dvds in one box and the smaller one contained just one set.

then the smiling employee said i should wait a little while because they were computing the tax i had to pay. after a minute or so (boy, were they efficient!)she asked me to go to another window and showed the amount: PhP1,699.00. that's for a $93 worth package, 4842.00 in philippine peso at an exchange rate of P52.09 to a dollar

shocked with the amount, i said i only had P700 with me. she then asked if i needed a receipt. i said it was not necessary. i was willing to pay the full amount if i could find an ATM had she not said "sige lang, maayos natin, magkano ba maibabayad mo?" i was nonplussed. was the woman asking for a bribe? she repeatedly said 'maaayos yan.' i couldn't get myself to react and just stared at the assessment sheet. it said "customs duty". what was that supposed to mean? was it my duty to the customs to pay whatever amount i could afford that they in turn could put straight into their pockets and i could walk away with the parcel? or was it customary that they would try to fix everything, and it was my duty to remunerate their 'extra effort' to help me?

she could fix it!!! i inquired if she would still give me a receipt even if i paid less. she didn't reply, instead she called the customs officer to explain all those numbers he scribbled.

blah-blah-blah, and all the rhetoric, the customs officer even showed me a primer and a brought out a tome about tarrifs and everything. i reacted about the r-vat. i asked why it was covered by r-vat when the parcel reached the port of manila in jan 20. he said because it was inspected only today. i retorted, "what? so if it happened to be a bomb you wouldn't know unless somebody comes and tells you 'hey, i'm going to claim the explosives'. it could have exploded and you wouldn't know what hit you." anyway, i didn't really want to argue about that. i was just pissed that they attempted to steal what was supposed to go to the government coffer, but had i yielded would go straight to their pockets. not that i trust the state but actually talking to this kind of goverment employees was really galling.

anyway again, i wasn't willing to take part in pulling off that act so i told them i'd come back some other time with the full amount. i took the primer with me. the customs officer cheerfully, (yes, cheerfully) said i could consult a lawyer if i wanted to while i walked away incensed though i still managed to give him a smile.

damn!!!