THE House Special Committee on East Asean Growth Area, in a meeting on Wednesday adopted House Resolution (HR) No. 454, urging President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. to renew the policy granting travel tax exemption to travelers departing from all international airports and seaports in Mindanao and Palawan to any destination in the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines – East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
Resolution author Rep. Princess Rihan Sakaluran (1st District, Sultan Kudarat), traced the policy to former President Rodrigo Duterte, by virtue of Memorandum Order No.23 issued in 2018 to promote mobility of travelers across the sub-regional areas and for airline companies to open up services within the Philippines-EAGA routes.
However, the policy had a five-year effectivity to expire in 2023.
“The opening of our economic corridors,” Rep. Sakaluran explained, “is crucial to attain the mission and vision of the BIMP-EAGA,” as she urged for the support of fellow lawmakers on HR 454.
During the hybrid meeting, Committee Vice Chairperson Rep. John Tracy Cagas (Lone District, Davao del Sur), said that the objective of the BIMP-EAGA Vision 2025 is to increase trade, tourism and investments that will guide cooperation over a nine-year period covering CYs 2017-2025.
He said that no less than Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez supports the measure.
NEDA Undersecretary Carlos Bernardo Abad Santos said that the BIMP-EAGA is a cooperation initiative established in 1994 aimed at promoting mobility and spur development in remote and less developed areas in the participating Southeast Asian countries.
The panel likewise approved the creation of a technical working group (TWG), to be headed by Rep. Sakaluran that will convene the BIMP-EAGA Inter-parliamentary Forum.
Resource persons from the Department of Finance-BIR, Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Mindanao Development Authority also expressed support for HR 454. Rep. Alana Samantha Santos (3rd District, North Cotabato) proposed that the travel tax exemption be made permanent.
