LETTER TO THE EDITOR: "Keep Calm, Barter On!"

I had just finished my lunch and sat on my desk to continue working from home, when a member of my local online barter club posted a news item that had the shock value of a 9.5-intensity earthquake: DTI to hunt down people engaged in online barter trade.

After a knee-jerk reaction of anger for how incredulous and incendiary that headline was, I did my research and found the CEO of AdvocatesOMI, who published that article, and spoke my mind about the article. He forwarded me the live interview (see 19:00 to 21:00).

(Ano ang masasabi tungkol sa online barter?) “Ngayon ko lang narinig yang barter TRADE sa online...very unusual po iyan… allowed sa limited places sa Mindanao dahil sa nature ng mga lugar duon na kailangang ma-improve yung livelihood...lalo na po sa tabing dagat, meron po tayong inaallow na barter trade...acoording to the EO ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENT. Very limited po iyan sa Sulu, Jolo, at Tawi-Tawi, pero sa ibang lugar hindi po allowed ang barter trade… dapat regular transaction tayo diyan at dapat may tax na babayaran…”..(Follow-Up Q: ...ano ang bawal or unlawful items?) “...bawal nga po at nalalabag nila ang tax law diyan...papahanap natin iyon (yung law? Yung nanlalabag?) dahil illegal activity...umaaksyon pa ang ating composite team..ng DTI at PNP at NBI...marami na po kaming natatanggap na complaints but not on barter… from 1000 in January to 10,000 complaints on online selling...”

Ah. So the Secretary addressed huge issues about online sellers evading taxes and breaching ethics and people complaining about them. And then, in the last two minutes, he had to give his take on something he just learned about at that point of the interview.

Perhaps because he was the Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, when he heard “barter trade”, he was probably thinking of these images in Tawi-Tawi, particularly of Badjaos in Panglima Sugala


I mean, he only had about 5 minutes left to end the interview, right? And this commercial barter trade to revive the economy of an entire region was probably the image that entered his mind. The very fact that he even mentioned the Executive Order makes me believe that.

But really, Mr. Secretary. Do we need an Executive Order to barter used things, unwanted gifts, outgrown books, toys, and clothes… to get goods, like Yakult to stay healthy and not overburden our already-overwhelmed health system; corned beef, Spam, rice, and vegetables; so that our money can be used for more important items like our aging parents’ medication or to pay sticker-shocking Meralco bills or… so we can save for a rainy day?

Let us know. Oh, by the way, if you need to tax us, we can pay you what we gained from the trade.. And it isn’t cash. Like 3 eggs from a tray of 30 if it’s 10%, or if 20%, 1 bottle of Yakult from a pack of 5. Or… you get the point. So, until you get clarity about what barter means to potentially 7.3 million jobless Filipinos (hindi lang po mga sulok-sulok ng Mindanao ang may naghihirap at nangangailangan ng livelihood!)... WE WILL...