SAN JUAN, Abra – The Turismo Isulong Mo Party-list group is pushing for the abolition of the travel tax being collected from travelers going out of the country because the funds being generated no longer serve the desired purposes.
Former three-term Mayor Marco Bautista, second nominee of the Turismo Isulong Mo Party-list, stated that the effect of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to the resource generation of the government has been enormous that is why the best option to sustain the funds to implement tourism development projects is to ensure that it will be regularly funded from the annual budget approved by Congress.
The travel tax amounting to P1,620 for regular travelers, P3,000 for first-class travelers among others is being apportioned where 50 percent will be remitted to the State-owned Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), 40 percent will go to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and 10 percent will go to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
However, Bautista claimed that in the utilization of the funds from the TIEZA purposely for tourism development projects, this was done in a questionable process because the selection of projects and areas that benefit from it is selective where only few places are benefitting from the earmarked funds.
The Turismo Isulong Mo Party-list nominee underscored that the imposition of travel tax to travelers is just an added burden to travelers and its abolition is timely while efforts are being done to ensure continuous funding by the government to tourism development projects and other related endeavors.
According to him, with the current set up being observed by TIEZA, especially in the identification of tourism development projects funded from the tax proceeds, smaller areas in need of funds to develop their tourist destinations are being left out which is not favorable to the government’s program on sustainable tourism development geared towards the development of potential tourist destinations around the country.
The Turismo Isulong Mo Party-list is listed as No. 156 in the order of party-list organizations that have been allowed by the Commission on Election (Comelec) to run for the available seats in the House of Representatives during the upcoming May 9, 2022 synchronized national and local elections.
Bautista recommended that there should be a fair distribution of the limited funds being earmarked for tourism development projects to ensure there is a balance between the improvement of popular and potential tourist destinations in the different parts of the country.
Bautista asserted that priority for development should be potential tourist destinations around the country to ensure that people who already visited popular tourist destinations will have alternate places to visit.
In the Cordillera alone, he disclosed there are many other tourist destinations that deserve to be developed through the funding by the tourism department and concerned government agencies should not just be focused on the popular tourist spots.