Photo Release

Declaring tourism areas, destinations, and its effects: Sen. Nancy Binay presides over Tuesday’s virtual hearing of the Committee on Tourism, October 12, 2021, on the general views, comments and recommendations of the implementing national government agencies regarding various Senate and House bills referred to the committee, such as declaring tourism development areas (TDAs), farm tourism destinations, eco-tourism zones, and tourist destinations. Binay said the committee received 111 bills from the Senate and the House of Representatives declaring certain areas as tourism zones and destinations. “This public hearing is being called to enlighten us on the possible consequences if Congress passed these 111 bills into laws in relation to the following: the current national tourism development plan which is about to expire by next year; the proposed national tourism development plan, if there is an ongoing work on this; the sustainability of the tourism industry; the Supreme Court ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia case regarding the share of the local government units from the national taxes; the Internal Revenue Allotment of the LGUs; the basic services and facilities devolved to LGUs under Section 17 of the Local Government Code of 1991; and the direction of the Philippine development plan, which is also about to end by 2022,” Binay said. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)