Waste of people’s money

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February 14, 2026 | 12:00am

The President has just certified as urgent the abolition of the travel tax, a move I consider wise.

Last year, I wrote about how the travel tax, collected by the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) under the Department of Tourism pursuant to Republic Act 9593 or the Tourism Act of 2009, has been unduly burdening airline passengers. It has been said that the travel tax has long been criticized for being a hindrance to the tourism industry.

Let me quote from my previous article:

“If passengers and groups claiming to represent the consumers’ interest want to complain about the cost of airline tickets, why not question instead the other components of the ticket price? The travel tax already amounts to a whopping P1,620 for economy class passengers and P2,700 for first class passage, plus an additional P100 if you pay the travel tax online. How about the base fare itself? Or other fees like administrative fees, ticketing service charges, aviation security fees or web admin fees? Or the various taxes, fees and surcharges such as government taxes, fuel surcharges? Do airline passengers even benefit directly from all these taxes and surcharges?

“Why do some domestic flights cost more than going to other ASEAN/Asian destinations? No wonder Filipinos would rather go to Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand or even Japan than visit tourist spots in Davao or Cebu.

“Under RA 9593, half of the travel tax collections shall accrue to TIEZA, while 40 percent goes to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for tourism-related educational programs and courses and the remaining 10 percent to the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA).

“According to one report, of the average P1.014 billion received by TIEZA from travel taxes yearly from 2000 to 2014, over 55 percent went to infrastructure projects and capital outlay while the rest went to administrative expenses.

“The National Tax Research Center said there was no way to track how CHED and NCCA spend their share of half of the annual travel tax collections. The NTRC, however, revealed that CHED admitted that it cannot directly identify which among its projects and programs are tourism-related.

“How much has TIEZA or the Philippine Tourism Authority, its predecessor, spent to actually improve the hotels and other tourism facilities that it owns and manages?

“Just last July, the Sandiganbayan even convicted four former high-ranking officials of the PTA for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act due to irregularities relating to a 2005 construction project inside Intramuros when they proceeded with the project and released payments to the contractor despite failing to secure the required permits and the concurrence of the Intramuros Administration.

“In 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the Commission on Audit’s decision to issue a notice of disallowance to TIEZA after the latter entered into a direct contracting deal for Christmas decorations and setup worth P2.3 billion in 2011, intended for decorations for the Club Intramuros Golf Course. The SC said that TIEZA officials did not even conduct the required survey to find out if there are suitable alternatives to Kabukiran Garden that can be obtained at a lower cost and that to eliminate any suspicion of favoritism or partiality in the execution of public contracts, the law generally requires all government procurement to undergo competitive bidding unless the items to be procured are of a proprietary source.

“Last March, TIEZA had to scrap the proposed P500-million aesthetic lighting project for Mayon Volcano following strong opposition from local government officials, environmental advocates and even the Catholic Church.

“COA also flagged TIEZA two years ago for overpriced year-end calendar giveaways worth P645 each.

“In 2018, 35 PTA officials were sued before the Office of the Ombudsman for a supposedly anomalous water and sewerage system agreement for Boracay Island. TIEZA has the sole and exclusive right to regulate all utilities, including waterworks and sewerage systems, in Boracay and other tourist zones.

“Sen. Raffy Tulfo even suggested that TIEZA should instead source its funds from the national government instead of collecting travel taxes which is an impediment to travel.”

According to news reports, House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos just last week filed House Bill 7443 seeking to abolish the travel tax, saying it has become an unnecessary burden on travelers and no longer serves its original purpose.

Marcos said that many ASEAN member-countries have already scrapped similar travel-related levies to boost tourism, trade and people-to-people exchanges.

The House of Representatives pushed for the inclusion of the abolition of the travel tax among the priority legislative measures of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.

Before the travel tax is permanently abolished, TIEZA and its predecessor agency and their respective heads and officials as well as those of the recipient agencies should first explain where all the billions of pesos collected over the years went. The CHED cannot even name what these tourism-related educational programs that supposedly benefitted from the tax are.

We have learned that TIEZA holds its travel tax earnings in a special account, allowing it to spend funds autonomously without direct congressional appropriation for every project. It supposedly spends its share of the travel tax collections on developing tourism infrastructure but I heard that its predecessor agency, the PTA does not have paperwork on many of its spendings.

It has also been said that TIEZA and the PTA used the travel tax collections as a source of pork barrel funds to make politicians happy. And many of these politicians are in areas that never even have a tourism potential. Travel tax money to build basketball courts? C’mon.

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