Senators back higher DOT promotions budget

MANILA, Philippines — Some lawmakers in the Senate vowed to increase the budget of the Department of Tourism (DOT) to promote the Philippines as a tourist destination to foreign markets.

In a briefing at the Senate Wednesday, Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco said the DOT currently operates on a budget of P100 million for its branding and promotions programs for 2025, lower than the P200 million in 2024 and the whopping P1.2 billion in 2023.

Senate tourism committee chairman Sen. JV Ejercito and committee member Sen. Rodante Marcoleta sympathized with the DOT.

Marcoleta said the DOT’s budget could have been “politicized.”

“If we are unable to promote the tourism sector, the Filipinos will lose out. This should not be politicized,” he said.

The P100-million budget for DOT’s promotions programs would put the Philippines at the losing end amid the supposed competition with neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, according to Ejercito.

“I don’t think we can really compete with P100 million, compared to our ASEAN neighbors’ budget,” he said.

Frasco said Southeast Asian countries “invest multimillion-dollar funding allocations annually in tourism marketing and promotion.”

According to the DOT, the agency is proposing an allocation of P450 million out of the total P3.718-billion budget under the National Expenditure Program  for 2026.

Frasco had defended the DOT from some lawmakers’ accusations that the agency was “underperforming.”

She said the assessment could have stemmed from the decision of her husband, Cebu 5th district Rep. Duke Frasco, to become an “independent” member of the House.