A local government unit’s (LGU) imposition of P30 fee requirement for every person entering the town has caused a stir among tourists and resort owners.
According to reports, tourists have been complaining about the fee, which is collected by Anda LGU’s casual workers stationed along the national highway bordering Guindulman, Bohol.
One netizen who recently visited the town, famous for its white sand beaches, commented that the town’s exorbitant entrance fee is nowhere else found in the Philippines, and could set a dangerous precedent if all LGUs employ the same collection scheme.
“A very bad ordinance even if it turns out to be legal. What if all the LGUs will be doing the same? Much more if they are only very good at collecting and nothing turn out good out of it,” the netizen was quoted as saying.
The ordinance imposing entrance fee was once approved by the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) but it was not implemented by former Mayor Metodio “Dodong” Amper due to legal implications.
But when Angelina Simacio won mayor in last year’s elections, she resumed collecting entrance fees to all individuals entering Anda.
And lately the fee was increased to P30 per person, drawing widespread criticisms by local and foreign tourists and tourism stakeholders of the town, and on social media.
Jun Daniel, owner of Anda de Boracay and president of the town’s resort operators’ organization, lamented that the entrance fee of P30 has discouraged local tourists to visit Anda.
In a local radio program aired in Jagna, he was quoted as saying that their opposition to the entrance fee policy is nothing political but an attempt to save Bohol tourism, which has been hurt by the drastic decline of volume of visitors since the imposition of P30 entry fee.
Tourists have been expressing their dissatisfaction with the fee, especially resort owners who have seen a decline in their business due to the fee, Daniel told a radio program.
Resort owners have also raised concerns about the legality of this P30 per person collection as an “environmental fee.”
Tourist-magnet towns in Bohol like Dauis, Panglao, Loboc, Carmen, Bilar, Sagbayan and Baclayon are not collecting entrance fees at their respective borders, let alone at the national highway, he said.
ORIGIN OF BOUNDARY FEE
Anda’s local government unit (LGU) has been collecting boundary fee from travelers entering the town for over a decade.
However, the collection of this fee has been met with long-running controversies.
In 2020, then Mayor Dodong Amper did not implement Ordinance No. 21-2020 because he believed it had legal problems, and was not properly studied. Mayor Amper even called it “highway robbery.”
The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Bohol reportedly did not approve Ordinance No. 21-2020.
If the ordinance is disapproved by the SP, LGU Anda must return the money collected, sources have said.
For years travelers have been complaining about the collection of environmental fees at a designated point along the highway upon entering Anda. They cited Article III of the 1987 Constitution, Section 6 which provides that “neither shall the right to travel be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety, or public health, as may be provided by law.”
They expressed disappointment that while they have the right to travel, such right is already subjected to a limiting factor which is the collection of the fee.
OLD MONEY-MAKING SCHEME
The municipal government has been collecting an environmental fee from visitors upon entering the town’s boundary as early as 2012.
However, all three municipal ordinances that have been cited as bases for its implementation still have to get the approval from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP).
The Sangguniang Bayan of Anda passed the first ordinance regarding the scheme in 2011 and amended it through another ordinance in 2012.
The 2012 ordinance changed the collection point to the entrance of resorts or at the boundary of the barangays where they are located from what is designated in the 2011 ordinance which is Sitio Ipo in barangay Candabong – the entrance point to the town.
The SP forwarded the 2011 and 2012 ordinances to the Provincial Legal Office before making recommendations.
The 2016 ordinance has not yet been transmitted by the SB of Anda to the SP for review.
If the ordinance would be reviewed by the SP and gets disapproved, then the municipality of Anda may have implemented it without any legal basis, and is bound to return what it had collected from the public.