Health Update: Cebu City Eyes Tax Breaks for Wellness & Health Businesses – What Experts Say

IN AN effort to intensify preventive healthcare, the Cebu City Council is considering a measure that would use tax incentives and regulatory perks to push businesses into becoming active partners in fighting lifestyle-related diseases.

This seeks to be part of the City’s effort to curb the growing burden of chronic non-communicable diseases.

The proposed Cebu City Health Promotion Incentive Ordinance of 2026 endorsed to the City Council on Feb. 3, 2026, and authored by Councilor Michelle Abella-Cellona, seeks to encourage enterprises such as fitness centers, wellness studios and sellers of nutritious food by offering fiscal and non-fiscal rewards for contributing to public health goals.

It aims to make nutritious food and wellness services more available, accessible, and affordable.

Under the measure, qualified businesses may be eligible for incentives such as partial reductions in mayor’s permit fees, business taxes within legal limits, and sanitary inspection charges.

It also includes non-monetary benefits such as priority processing of permits and a proposed “Healthy Cebu Business Seal.”

Requirements

To qualify, a business must operate within Cebu City and be primarily engaged in activities that demonstrably promote health and wellness, such as food retail/wholesale, fitness and wellness, professional services that provide nutrition counseling and dietary services, and other enterprise certified by the City Health Department.

Cellona said the ordinance is anchored on prevention, noting that diseases like hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular illness continue to strain families and the public health system.

According to the proposal, incentives would be performance-based and time-bound, applying only to the portion of a business directly engaged in health-promoting activities.

Participating enterprises would also be subject to certification and regular compliance reviews by the City Health Department, the Business Permits and Licensing Office and the City

Treasurer’s Office.

The proposed measure is currently under committee review. / EHP