"Fully Booked BGC is no longer selling local magazines."
"Fully Booked BGC is no longer selling local magazines."
The Philippine Competition Commission should look into the policy of Fully Booked to remove, boycott and ban local magazines from its stands in favor of imported magazines and an “expanded” stationery section.
Fully-Booked Operations Manager Elisa D. Lopez-Candoleta (no relation to me) has sent a “To whom it may concern letter” to local magazine publishers saying “the spaces currently being occupied by Local Magazines will be revamped to give way for (sic) this initiative” (“expanding the stationery section of our BGC store”).
Candoleta claims that “also, after evaluation of the Local Magazine sales for the past several months, we regret to inform you that the Management have (sic) decided to discontinue selling Local Magazines starting June 30, 2019. All Local Magazines will be pulled out from our display shelves after June 30 store operations.”
This policy is wrong for three reasons: One, it reeks of colonial mentality; two, it violates the spirit and several provisions of the Constitution, and three, it is anti-competitive and violative of RA 10667 (Philippine Competition Law).
Among the constitutional provisions violated are in Article II, Declaration of Polices:
Section 17. The State shall give priority to education, science and technology, arts, culture, and sports to foster patriotism and nationalism, accelerate social progress, and promote total human liberation and development.
Section 19. The State shall develop a self-reliant and independent national economy effectively controlled by Filipinos.
Section 24. The State recognizes the vital role of communication and information in nation-building.
The Constitution mandates the State to regulate or prohibit “combinations in restraint of trade or unfair competition.”
According to the Philippine Competition Commission, “enforcement of (RA 10667) will help ensure that markets are open and free, challenging anti-competitive business practices while maintaining an environment where businesses can compete based on the quality of their work. A competitive market means a market with multiple buyers and multiple sellers, driving market prices lower and offering consumers more choices. A truly competitive market encourages efficiency and innovation, and forces businesses to excel.”
The PCC is empowered to penalize all forms of anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position.
Together, Fully Booked and National Book Store are dominant in retailing books and magazines, local and foreign. They are a monopoly; they accordingly routinely impose policies sometimes without regard to the welfare of consumers and local magazine publishers.
One of the local magazines affected by the BGC Fully Booked’s ban on local magazines is my BizNewsAsia weekly newsmagazine.
I challenge BGC Fully Booked to show me data on how sales of local magazines are doing compared with imported magazines.
I do not believe foreign magazines sell better than local magazines, particularly my BizNewsAsia, now on its 18th year of weekly publishing, for three reasons: One, local magazines carry more local content and more relevant materials; two, imported magazines are exceedingly expensive, considering the sparse space devoted to things and issues Philippines; and three, many foreign magazines are condescending towards the Philippines and Filipinos, motivated by bias, unfairness or sheer ignorance.
Finally, even if BGC Fully Booked bans all magazines, local and foreign, that will still be wrong and will violate the 1958 UNICEF convention on exchange of publications, including newspapers and periodicals. Besides, can you imagine a bookstore without magazines?
I trust PCC chairman Arsi Balisacan will look into this complaint.
