Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte receives the award from the Department of Finance’s Bureau of Local Government Finance for the city which was cited as the country’s richest local government unit with total assets of P452.333 billion in 2020. Contributed photo
MANILA, Philippines — Quezon City regained the distinction as the country’s wealthiest local government unit (LGU) with total assets of P452.333 billion in 2020.
From only P96.423 billion in 2019, the latest Commission on Audit’s (COA) “2020 Annual Financial Report on Local Government” showed Quezon City’s assets increased by 369 percent or a whopping P355.91 billion.
This put Quezon City at the top of COA’s richest LGUs list, overtaking Makati City which posted total assets of P238.464 billion in 2020. Makati City had total assets of P233.781 billion in 2019.
Mayor Joy Belmonte attributed this dramatic improvement to the city government’s sustained efforts to properly record all of its properties.
“Donated lands with transfer certificate of titles, deed of donations, and Sangguniang Panlusod Resolutions were identified during a robust inventory conducted by the City’s General Services Department and valued based on the latest zonal valuation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue,” said Belmonte.
“Through the City’s good governance efforts, we were able to properly reflect assets we owned. They were already there for the past years but were just not properly recorded and recognized,” she added.
Among those inventoried and recorded by the city government were fixed assets, like infrastructure, buildings, roads, and other properties.
Belmonte also lauded employees of the city government for their contribution to the effort, saying local government leaders cannot do it alone.
“We also thank our government workers who have made the ultimate sacrifice during this pandemic. If not for everyone’s help, we won’t be able to accomplish this milestone,” she stressed.
Aside from Quezon City and Makati City, other LGUs in the top 10 wealthiest in 2020 were Manila (P76.548 billion), Pasig City (P49.511 billion), Cebu City (P34.754 billion), Mandaue City (P32.571 billion), Taguig City (P30.682 billion), Davao City (P23.664 billion), Caloocan City (P22.203 billion), and Zamboanga City (P19.775 billion).