FORMER Albay representative Joey Salceda believes the bill seeking to abolish the travel tax should be passed. "I think it should be passed because it will help. Every positive measure, I think, should be considered," Salceda, an economist who is a former chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said in the Saturday Media Forum in Quezon City. The government would lose P11 billion if the tax is removed, but in exchange, a P46-billion economic output would be created, he said. Abolishing the travel tax is a priority measure of the Marcos administration. House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander Marcos, who filed House Bill 7443 to abolish the travel tax, said removing it "sends a clear signal that the government is serious about mobility, recovery, and competitiveness." Overseas Filipino workers are among those exempted from the tax. Marikina 2nd District Rep. Miro Quimbo, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, has said the tax "is no longer justified." He said it was imposed during the time of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., when travel abroad during the '70s was limited to the very rich. "Today, everybody travels. So this is a big hindrance when it comes to the ability of our countrymen to travel [abroad]," Quimbo said.