Tovic Salvador

Article (news)

Agatha Gregorio

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1756798990991GzzcFMXaoAEkzXY.jfif" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">The House Committee on Appropriations tackles the proposed 2026 budget of the Department of Tourism. Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco is at the hearing. </span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — Some House lawmakers want to increase the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) budget for 2026 to allocate funding for tourism roads, leading to destinations, and branding.</p><p>House Committee on Appropriations Vice Chairperson Rufus Rodriguez said he will ask the committee for the restoration of at least P6 billion for the budget.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/7/31/dot-says-it-s-underfunded-not-underperforming-2303">DOT says it&#x27;s underfunded, not underperforming</a></div><p>According to Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco, P3.5 billion was allocated for continuing roads under the National Expenditure Program (NEP), but there is no funding for new roads.</p><p>“I would be asking that this committee be able to recommend to the plenary the restoration of at least P6 billion for the roads leading to tourist destinations,” Rodriguez said during a hearing by the House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday, Sept. 2.</p><p>Prior to this, Frasco said they endorsed funding for continuing and new tourism roads to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) repeatedly over the past few years.</p><p>But zero funding was given for new roads, and the budget for continuing roads was even cut.</p><p>When asked by Rodriguez if the DOT is “giving up on tourism” as there is supposedly no road infrastructure program, Frasco replied that the DPWH has the jurisdiction over the funding for tourism roads. </p><p>“It has been an advocacy on the part of the Department of Tourism since 2022 to invest in tourism roads, which is why every year, we’ve received proposals, and we promptly endorse to DPWH for funding for continuing tourism roads and new tourism roads,&quot; she said. </p><p>She said that in 2024, DOT has ensured that P5 billion in funding for new tourism roads was lodged in the budget of the DPWH.</p><p>&quot;Unfortunately, while we had proposed yet again in 2025 the budget was zeroed. While, and there was funding for continuing roads, surely, this is not enough to open up new destinations.”</p><p>Frasco said they view this as a “grave concern” because of its impact on the development of tourist destinations.</p><p>“For the 2026 GAA (General Appropriations Act), we also proposed again funding for tourism roads to DPWH at the amount of around P6.2 billion if I’m not mistaken. Zero funding was provided for new roads. And even the funding for continuing roads was reduced to a shell of what it was. And it now stands at only 3 billion. So we view this of grave concern considering that this will stagnate the development of our destinations,” Frasco said.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/6/ph-earns-over-p65b-from-tourism-in-jan-2025-dot-0918">PH earns over P65B from tourism in Jan. 2025: DOT</a></div><p>Rodriguez added he will move for the increase of the DOT’s branding budget.</p><p>This is after Frasco lamented the limited budget for branding especially compared to what is given to other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.</p><p>“Suffering a nearly 95% reduction in our branding has significantly limited our ability to compete as well as we can with our direct competitors in the ASEAN whose branding and promotions budget by comparison are in the billions of dollars. So to be perfectly frank, while the expectations for international arrivals soar, the branding budget for the same has significantly been reduced. And so there is a gross disparity between the expected international arrivals and the investments for the same,” Frasco said.</p><p>The 2026 DOT National Expenditure Program (NEP) budget is at P3.718 billion.</p><div><a class="fr-strong fr-green" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/9/1/9-msmes-in-tourism-sector-receive-turismo-asenso-loans-1248">9 MSMEs in tourism sector receive &#x27;Turismo Asenso Loans&#x27;</a></div><div> </div><div><strong>DOT QUESTIONED OVER NOT MEETING 7.7M INTERNATIONAL ARRIVALS TARGET</strong> </div><p>Akbayan Party-list Rep. Perci Cendaña also questioned DOT for not meeting its target of 7.7 million international arrivals back in 2024.</p><p>Cendaña also asked if this was “clear proof” that the agency’s strategies failed to bring tourism back to pre-pandemic levels.</p><p>“In 2024 po, the DOT promised 7.7 million international arrivals. And then the actual number was 5.95 million—a shortfall of 1.8 million or almost 25% below target. And I’d like to juxtapose this with pre-pandemic arrivals in 2019, which reached almost 8.3 million. Five years na po since noong pandemya, pero we are still far behind. So the question isn’t this a clear proof that the DOT’s strategies have failed to bring in the tourism back to pre-pandemic levels?” Cendaña asked during the hearing.</p><p>Frasco said the figure of 7.7 million was projected based on the liberalization of visas, specifically for the market of China.</p><p>&quot;At the beginning of the administration, the Department of Tourism had proposed that visas be liberalized for the Chinese market, considering that nearly the rest of our neighbors had already lifted these requirements for Chinese nationals. Therefore, the electronic visa program was launched by the Department of Foreign Affairs,&quot; Frasco said. </p><p>&quot;And it had projected that they would be able to issue 2 million visas within the span of one year at around 8,000 visas per day. That 2 million number was not reached because the e-Visa program was promptly suspended, and regular visa applications was also meted with strict and more stringent documentary requirements,” she said.</p><p>The tourism chief added that if they had been able to continue the e-Visa program, they would have been able to obtain 2 million arrivals, resulting in a number even higher than the 7.7 million target.</p><p>Also cited as reasons for not reaching the target were the country’s dependence on air travel for international arrivals and a lower tourism budget in comparison to that of other Southeast Asian countries’.</p><p>“The reality being that the Philippines is an archipelagic nation whose dependency on international arrivals is solely pegged on air travel at a 99% dependency on international flights coming into the country. In stark contrast to that is the fact that our direct competitors in the ASEAN enjoy international land borders such as Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and the like,” Frasco said.</p><p>She said Malaysia’s dependency on international land border travel for international tourists is at 43.4%, while Cambodia is at 63%.</p><p>“A comparison of the budgets of our counterpart departments of tourism amongst our direct neighbors would show that the Philippines’ ranking in the ASEAN almost equates our ranking in terms of budget. Simply put, the lesser you invest in tourism, the lesser international arrivals you will have,” Frasco said.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/othersports/2025/6/10/dot-links-up-with-runrio-anew-for-tourism-driven-races-1727">DOT links up with RUNRIO anew for tourism-driven races</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><div style="text-align:center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bJjBw9mrCPs?si=i5HW4AW_oZrIoHJy" title="YouTube video player" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br/></div><script data-wid="auto" type="text/javascript" src="https://content.viralize.tv/display/?zid=AAFz8gWM8iRADsJr&amp;cid=ABf-Axl8PAekSwTz"></script>

<p>Some House lawmakers want to increase the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) budget for 2026 to allocate funding for tourism roads, leading to destinations, and branding.</p>

Some House lawmakers want to increase the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) budget for 2026 to allocate funding for tourism roads, leading to destinations, and branding.

House lawmakers want more funding for DOT for tourism roads, branding

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House lawmakers want more funding for DOT for tourism roads, branding

Agatha Gregorio,

ABS-CBN News

Published Sep 02, 2025 04:12 PM PHT

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Updated Sep 02, 2025 10:19 PM PHT

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budget

Department of Tourism

House of Representatives

tourism roads

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