The Fedex Pissed Costumer Complaints (Insane Fees and Taxes that comes with it)

I wanted to share this experience because I am really pissed and upset about what is happening on the supposed to be Christmas gift that was sent from the US (America). It is supposed to be precious gift from someone that was sent thru Fedex. Based on the tracking I have done on Fedex website, it states that my gift will arrived in 5days from the time it was sent. I was very happy and excited waiting for its arrival but on the fourth day of monitoring through their tracking system, it appears that my gift was 3 hours away from me and have a "Clearance Delay" status in Paranaque, PH. At First, I was wondering and tried to search what does the "Clearance Delay" means, it turn out that based on my readings on some article on the internet, shipping any items in the Philippines from other countries and in my case USA have to undergo to the Philippine customs and treated as an import products that has to be taxed.

Another problem arises when I recieved an email from a Fedex personnel name Mr. Francis Galit, he said that my package has a arrived and that I should approved or deny the taxes and duties that accompany it due to the Philippine customs. I called their hotline and asked, because really, I dont have any idea that recieving a gift internationally needs to be taxed and I have to pay an insane amount that comes with it. YES "INSANE" because on the approximate tax computation they made, the total amount that I have to pay is around PHP 11, 644.00 plus the safekeeping customs storage fees. (which I still wonder how much)

Here is their computation:

WTF, my first reaction, recieves a gift but pay a huge import tax for it. Well, the dilemma doesn't stop in that amount, when a Fedex agent called me up, she said that she will be the one assisting me to clear my package in the customs, and inform me that the insane and huge temporary amount for Import Tax and duties to the customs may get higher depending on the custom official that will evaluate and approve it. Another headache arises when the Fedex lady I talk to says that my package is considered high value because the declared amount is more that 500USD so the processing will take around 2 to 3 days or longer depending on how long the customs official will take to examine it, for god sake, it is some cosmetics, anklet and an electronic book reader, will it take 3 days to examine it? and the good news is, there is a catch on the storage fees while it was sitting on the customs, and I heard that customs storage fees are in unreasonable amount and very pricey too. Did anyone ask them to store it in the customs, people wake up, just examine it, then approved and release it, I want my Christmas present delivered on me, but I guess all I can do now is just wait and see what will gonna happen next. 

Until now on the fifth day that is supposed to be delivery date of the package, Fedex people are not yet giving me the exact huge/big amount that I should be paying for the import taxes, safekeeping in customs storage, handling fees and releasing it. Another wish that I have is that I wish the amount I should be paying will not exceed or will not be more than the actual amount of the package itself, because if that is the case, then it will look like that I bought that gift again and the sense of it being a gift for me will be gone.

I will be updating on how will this all ends and how much will I pay for the gift i suppose to receive for free, good thing, senders offer to cover the payment for it, but still its not acceptable to pay for an import tax for an items given as a gift and hold the items for days in the customs when it should be already delivered to me. I hate to be a Philippine critics but I just feel shame that I live in a country that have this ridiculous law in the customs, or is it called "robbing with consent" because they robbed you of your money by giving the computation that they will ask you to pay, and those computation is unacceptable and unreasonable, it even taxed the shipping fees that is paid by the sender, not just the items declared amount. Is this part of Philippine customs corruption? well i dont know, all i know is I heard a lot of rumors going on in the customs and how corrupt is the people in the customs. I am experiencing this and you tell me if this is a right thing or unacceptable situation.