MANILA – Travel tax revenues should be used to construct emergency accommodations in airports, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said, as the Senate probed the 36-hour closure of the capital’s main airport in early August.
Temporary beds and comfortable cushions should be provided for passengers during emergency situations, said Zubiri, who was among thousands stranded at airports across the country after a Xiamen Airlines jet overshot the Ninoy Aquino International Airport runway in the evening of Aug. 16.
“We should use part of the travel tax to help improve the facilities of the DOTr [Department of Transportation] in the airports for emergency situations,” Zubiri said.
Outgoing passengers are charged up to P1,620 for economy and P2,700 for business class. Half of the amount goes to the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, 40 percent to the Commission on Higher Education and 10 percent to the National Commission for Culture and Arts, according to the TIEZA website.
Zubiri’s proposal will be raised before the TIEZA board, said Tourism undersecretary Arturo Boncato.
In 2015, P4.22 million in travel taxes were collected from 2.95 million passengers, data from TIEZA showed. (ABS-CBN News)
