SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) continues to provide revenue shares to neighboring communities amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
SBMA chairman and administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the agency will release a total of PHP123.1 million, which came from revenue collections between July and December 2020 and the retained amount from the 2018 second semester LGU share.
“The release for this period is 29.9 percent lower than the shares for the same period last year, which was PHP175.7 million. And this goes to show how much the Covid-19 health crisis has impacted -- and continues to impact -- Freeport operations,” Eisma said in a statement.
“But it also goes to show that despite Covid-19, the SBMA and business locators in the Freeport have sustained economic growth and that Subic Bay will continue to be a catalyst for development in this part of the country,” she said.
For this period, Olongapo City will receive PHP28.6 million in LGU share; followed by Subic, Zambales with PHP18.8 million; Dinalupihan, Bataan PHP15.3 million; San Marcelino, Zambales PHP14.7 million; Hermosa, Bataan PHP12.8 million; Castillejos, Zambales PHP11.5 million; Morong, Bataan PHP10.7 million; and San Antonio, Zambales PHP10.5 million.
The SBMA will release the shares to LGU officials in staggered schedules beginning next week.
The LGU share is determined according to population (50 percent), land area (25 percent), and equal sharing (25 percent). Olongapo, which is a highly urbanized city, always receives the biggest chunk of the shares.
The shares constitute 2 percent of the 5 percent gross corporate income taxes paid by business enterprises in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone and were intended to augment LGU funds for tourism, infrastructure, education, peace and order, health, and livelihood generation.
With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, some LGUs said they have rechanneled part of the shares to health and safety programs to combat Covid-19.
The revenue shares are released to LGUs twice a year, with tax collections from January to June released in August, and collections from July to December released in February the following year.
For the entire 2020, the SBMA released a total of PHP277.98 million in revenue shares to seven municipalities and one city near this freeport zone. (PNA)
