6 firms ask court to stop SBMA from collecting tourism fees

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Six companies at Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales  and Bataan provinces have asked an Olongapo court to nullify an environment and tourism administrative fee (Etaf) that the state-run Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has been collecting from tourists since March this year.

The companies, in a civil case filed in  an  Olongapo City regional trial court on

June 5, said they also lodged the complaint on behalf of “similarly situated” firms and locators inside the Subic free port, according to lawyer Diosdado Rongcal, counsel for one of the plaintiffs.

The firms said  Etaf, which was approved by the SBMA board in a Jan. 24 resolution, should be voided because the agency “does not have the power to impose such tax or charge.”

“The imposition is baseless and illegal,” they said in the complaint.

The SBMA said Etaf would “generate and create a fund that will defray the costs for the continued protection and conservation of the environment.”

It said the agency would implement programs that would “mitigate the carbon footprint caused by visitors and tourists” at the free port.

The fee could be imposed as a 2-percent tax on gross purchases, a P20 fee for every person visiting Subic theme parks and beaches, a P100 fee for playing on Subic golf courses and a P1000 additional fee for hotel guests per room per night.

The complainants said Republic Act

No. 7227 (the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992), which created the

SBMA, “explicitly provides that ‘no national and local taxes shall be imposed within the Subic Special Economic Zone.’”

According to the SBMA resolution, the Etaf covers hotels, inns, houses for rent, serviced apartments, restaurants, wellness centers, massage and health spas, golf courses, beach resorts, theme parks and other recreational establishments.

“If the national and local governments are prohibited [from] imposing additional taxes within the area covered by the SBMA, the more reason that the SBMA, in the absence of an express authority, may not impose any kind of tax upon any establishment doing business within  the Subic Bay Freeport Zone,”  the complainants said.

The SBMA “has no power to task or command the plaintiffs to collect the fees/taxes for and on behalf of the defendant,” they said.

According to them, the Etaf was “prejudicial to the interest not only of tourists, patrons and visitors but also of affected business establishments.”

In a text message, SBMA Chair Roberto Garcia said his office had yet to receive a copy of the complaint.

The SBMA began collecting the fee on March 4 from visitors entering the free port.

In April, at least 30 businessmen representing several tourism-related establishments petitioned the SBMA to stop collecting the fee. Reports from Tonette Orejas and Alan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon