Cebu is nation’s richest province; QC richest city
CEBU CITY – Cebu province remains richest in the country for the third straight year, the 2016 Commission on Audit (COA) Annual Financial Report showed.
The province had total assets amounting to 32.43 billion in 2016, about 2 billion higher than the 30.33 billion in 2015, COA said.
The 2016 amount is almost three times higher than that of the province of Rizal, at second place, with 111.73 billion for the same year.
Other provinces in the Visayas which earned a spot in the 2016 top 10 list of wealthiest places were Negros Occidental at third place with 11.04 billion; Iloilo, which logged an income of 8.14 billion, ranked seventh; and Leyte at tenth with assets amounting to 7.03 billion.
Aside from the three Visayan
provinces, ranking below Cebu and Rizal were: Batangas (4th place) with income of 19,979 billion, Bulacan (5th place) with 18,964 billion, Palawan (6th place) with 18,199 billion, Laguna (8th place) at 17,556 billion, and Nueva Ecija (9th place) with 17.227 billion.
The provinces of Iloilo and Nueva Ecija are newcomers in the list, displacing Cavite and Negros Oriental which were earlier listed in the top 10.
Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said she was very happy to hear about the news. She lauded everyone who has worked for such a development and cited the Provincial Treasurer’s Office and the Provincial Budget Office.
According to Magpale, the success of the province speaks “very well” of managed finances. She added that there were a lot of contributing factors to Cebu maintaining its position such as the yearly increase in the budget and higher tax collection.
Among cities, Quezon City again topped the list with total assets of 159.56 billion. It was followed by Makati City (2nd spot) with 154.85 billion, City of Manila (3rd spot) with 136.10 billion, and Cebu City (4th spot) with 132.623 billion.
Other cities in the top ten were: Pasig (5th spot) with 129,899 billion in assets; Taguig (6th spot) with 16,268 billion; Pasay (7th spot) with 114,954 billion; Caloocan (8th spot) with 114,702 billion; Davao (9th spot) with 19.899 billion; and Iligan (10th spot) with 19.897 billion.