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February 24, 2026 | 9:15am
MANILA, Philippines — The House Committee on Tourism has approved, with no objection, six measures proposing to abolish the travel tax, even though the bills still lack a provision determining how the programs it finances would be properly sustained.
During its hearing on Monday, February 23, the tourism committee deliberated on bills that sought to grant exemptions from the travel tax and to abolish it altogether. However, as Chair Eleandro Jesus Madrona pointed out, if Congress ultimately passes a measure scrapping the travel tax, the exemption bills would become unnecessary.
With lawmakers leaning toward repealing the travel tax, especially as President Bongbong Marcos has directed Congress to prioritize it, the hearing primarily served as a venue for stakeholders to present their positions and recommendations.
The government institutions benefiting from the travel tax include the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
Under the current allocation scheme, TIEZA receives 50% of total collections, CHED gets 40%, while the NCCA is allotted 10%. The travel tax is used to fund infrastructure developments and facilitate investment in tourism enterprise zones nationwide, as well as support tourism-related educational programs.
Although the agencies did not object to scrapping the travel tax, they appealed to Congress to guarantee sustained funding for their programs and protect personnel from potential budget cuts.
TIEZA COO Mark Lapid said travel tax revenues have historically funded the development and rehabilitation of cultural and heritage sites, ecotourism destinations, tourist rest areas, water and sewerage treatment facilities and public parks nationwide.
In 2025 alone, he said, the government collected P8.7 billion in travel taxes, with 96% of the total coming from economy-class passengers. Once the travel tax is removed and no clear source of revenue is established, he said 300 TIEZA employees would lose their jobs.
Meanwhile, CHED Chairperson Shirley Agrupis argued that the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF) is heavily dependent on the travel tax, which comprises 85.6% of the entire fund.
"If the travel tax is repealed without a replacement revenue source, CHED's HEDF will lose 85.6% of its funding, which comes 40% of the travel tax. This is a structural loss that directly affects scholarships, research and institutional upgrading, and tourism education programs nationwide," she said.
Agrupis also explained that travel tax revenues also help sustain 5.4 million students enrolled in 1,906 higher education institutions nationwide. It also supports 1.6 million Filipino scholars, separate from those benefiting from the government's tertiary education subsidy program.
From 1995 to June 2025, she said P28 billion of the HEDF has already been utilized, wherein P24.1 billion came from travel tax.
After the government agencies stressed the importance of the travel tax, Madrona said Congress would have to better "set up another scheme."
Rep. Mikaela Suansing, who chairs the appropriations committee, assured that funds would be made available through the national budget to ensure the continuity of programs.
Despite this assurance, Agrupis stressed that flexibility in the use of funds may be lost if the programs become completely reliant on the General Appropriations Act alone.
Suansing, for her part, said Congress may review and consider restructuring the funding and utilization of the HEDF to ensure it retains enough flexibility without having to constantly appeal to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) when requesting funds.
The six measures seeking to abolish travel tax may have been approved by the tourism committee, but they will still have to go through the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Appropriations before reaching second reading.
