The House Voted to Abolish the Travel Tax, But There's a Trade-off

Each person who pays the travel tax invests in underprivileged scholars in college, artists’ grants, and the development of tourism destinations in the country.

These summed up the testimonies of representatives of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), and the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza), which receive funding from the travel taxes collected from Filipinos traveling abroad. In 2025, the government collected some P8.7 billion in travel taxes.

Despite its clear benefits, however, the Committee on Tourism at the House of Representatives approved six bills abolishing the travel tax, citing the need to ease the burden of Filipinos traveling abroad. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. had earlier directed the abolition of the tax upon recommendation of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.

During Monday’s hearing of Committee on Tourism, Nueva Ecjia First District Rep. Mikaela Angela B. Suansing, assured the three government agencies, “Given the criticality of the funds, we will work together (heads of the committees on tourism, ways and means, appropriations, and respective authors of the bills) to ensure that those funds will remain available…and to structure the [ensuing] bill in such a way that [the funds] would still be responsive to the needs of the different government agencies,” without being subjected to the annual appropriations requests.

Suansing chairs the Committee on Appropriations, Romblon Rep. Eleandro Jesus F. Madrona chairs the Committee on Tourism, and Marikina Second District Rep. Miro S. Quimbo chairs the Committee on Ways and Means.

CHED Chair Dr. Shirley C. Agrupis said 85.63 percent of the Higher Education Development Fund (HEDF), which was established under Republic Act No. 7722, “relies predominantly on travel taxes. From 1995 to 2025, these funds totaled some P38 billion.

Among the projects funded by the HEDF, she said, are the upgrade of facilities like laboratories, research grants, and scholarships for faculty development and student financial assistance, to name a few. In particular, she said the HEDF has assisted 246,034 undergraduate and graduate student scholars from 2018 to 2025.

On the part of the NCCA, Deputy Director Marichu Tellano said the agency receives P600 million to P700 million a year from travel taxes, necessary funding for its “permanent possessions.” She added, “Without the travel tax, all the grants for the artists and different organizations will be gone.” The travel taxes have also funded the restoration and operation of the Manila Metropolitan Theater, the maintenance and operation of the different UNESCO World Heritage sites.

TIEZA Chief Operating Officer Dr. Mark T. Lapid said in Filipino that the travel tax “fuels tourism development” in the country by building direly needed tourism-infrastructure projects, “developing tourism economic zones by attracting investors,” funding tourism master plans, and extending emergency assistance, such as in their recent support to enable the Philippines host its first Women’s Tennis Association match.

From 2019 to 2025, Tieza has been able to complete some P5 billion worth of tourism infrastructure projects, and some 148 projects valued at P7.13 billion are currently being developed.

For his part, Aklan Second District Rep. Florencio T. Miraflores, vice chair of the Committee on Tourism, said Boracay Island, which is under his jurisdiction, is one of the major beneficiaries of the travel tax, primarily for the provision of the “water, sewerage treatment plant, and the corresponding drainage project, which has made Boracay a worldwide destination today.” He underscored that “Tieza needs the flexibility of funding of tourism-related projects,” to immediately respond to the concerns of tourism destinations, like in Boracay’s case, a recent flooding problem.

Capiz First District Rep. Howard A. Guintu, speaking in Filipino, also said that “TIEZA was a big help in rehabilitating our centuries-old church,” and warned that in the case of his colleagues who also need help in restoring their historical landmarks, “if the travel tax is abolished, they may have further encounter difficulties in requesting funds to restore these landmarks.”

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