MANILA – Senators are considering to increase the budget for the tourism industry skills training program of the Department of Tourism (DOT) considering its very high utilization rate.
During the DOT's budget deliberation on Tuesday, Senate Pro Tempore Loren Legarda took notice of the program and asked the DOT to submit a written report to find a way on how the Senate Finance panel can augment its budget for next year.
"You're able to utilize a 10-year old but useful program of the DOT to train tourism workers. This year, you were able to train 91,000 already and you will exceed the 100,000 target," Legarda said.
"In next year's proposal under the NEP [National Expenditure Program], how many will you be able to train considering the budget that was approved in the NEP? Will you be able to meet the 100,000 target? Or if it's not sufficient, let us know so let's see how we can help," she added.
Under the NEP, the DOT was approved PHP121 million budget by the Department of Budget and Management to train about 100,000 tourism workers.
DOT Secretary Cristina Frasco admitted that the proposed budget is not enough considering the high demand of training in the tourism sector.
"The goal of the Department of Tourism is not to contract but rather to expand considering the value that we see in this program. So, we're hopeful that the baseline for the number of trained personnel next year would no longer be the 13,000 prior to the Marcos administration but 100,000 done this year. So, we hope to be able to train more than 100,000 this year," Frasco said.
She said the DOT is looking to exceed the 100,000 mark by this month with the program's Tier 1 budget for 2023 noting that the agency was able to have an "over capacity" of training but with a lesser budget.
This year, DOT's Tourism Industry Skills Training Program, which is being implemented by the Office of the Industry Manpower Developement, was allotted with PHP116.9 million.
Senator Nancy Binay, who presided the budget deliberation, lauded the DOT for its training program.
"You have to commend DOT also kasi way above the target yung na-reach nila considering yun yung given budget," she said.
Legarda said the panel can study the program and its budget and reminded that the Senate has the power to delete or augment the budget of various government agencies.
"We want to increase our tourism arrivals. We have to train the Filipino people, I mean the workers, and generate more jobs in tourism and to improve also the knowledge, expertise of our trainers and our experts," she said.
"You can only meet the target of 100,000 if the present budget for the NEP is not increased and you want to do more. Perhaps, double which with your absorptive capacity, you can do that and so there's a request for a higher budget which is lodged under Tier 2," she added.
Overall, the DOT and its attached agencies are proposing to spend PHP2.99 billion in 2024 which has a 20 percent cut from the PHP3.73 billion approved budget this year.
Frasco emphasized that tourism has been identified by the Marcos administration's economic managers as the "second top driver" of the Philippine economy in the first half of this year.
"Despite global trends, tourism's massive impact seen in the Philippines with anticipation of faster recovery due to policies under the Marcos administration, collaboration and tourism development, and private sector investment has seen the Philippines progress even higher in terms of percentage of recovery vis-a-vis its ASEAN neighbors," the DOT chief said.
The recovery of Philippine tourism, Frasco noted, is well seen with 66.33 percent year-on-year recovery rate from January to July this year.
By the end of 2022, the DOT saw the robust recovery of tourism recording over 2.65 million international arrivals.
In its data, the DOT reported that around 5.35 million Filipinos are employed in the industry who contributed no less than PHP1.87 trillion total tourist receipts last year.
After other various discussions, the Senate Committee on Finance Subcommittee J approved DOT's proposed budget and is set for further discussion in the Senate plenary. (PNA)
