Bulacan, QC top earners

Quezon City is still the country’s highest-earning city for the year 2015, while Bulacan has dislodged Negros Occidental as top earner among provinces, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

In its annual financial report on local government units, COA said Bulacan posted a revenue of P3.802 billion, outpacing the previous year’s top-earner Negros Occidental, which posted a revenue of P3.582 billion.

For 2015, Rizal reported a revenue of P3.318 billion (from P2.741 billion the previous year), while Cebu’s revenue amounted to P3.251 billion (from P2.768 billion).

The rest of the top 10 are Pangasinan, P3.1 billion; Cavite, P3.081 billion; Laguna, P3.031 billion; Quezon, P3.026 billion; Batangas, P2.864 billion; and Nueva Ecija, P2.603 billion.

Bukidnon, the top-earning province in Mindanao, placed 11th with a reported revenue of P2.599 billion.

Batanes reported the lowest revenue at P322 million.

Other provinces with low revenues are Siquijor, P421 million; Camiguin, P434 million; Dinagat Islands, P499 million; Biliran, P503 million; Guimaras, P536 million; Marinduque, P541 million; Romblon, P628 million; Mountain Province, P652 million; and Aurora, P674 million.

All in all, 21 of the 78 provinces that submitted their financial reports failed to breach the P1-billion mark in terms of revenue.

Even then, most of the provinces earned enough to sustain their expenditures. Almost all posted slight surpluses, while Rizal even exceeding the billion-peso mark at P1.57 billion.

Sulu, however, was the exception. Its spending of P1.506 billion exceeded its revenue of P1.288 billion, leading to a deficit of P217 million.

Highest revenue

Meanwhile, Quezon City posted the highest revenue among cities at P16.365 billion. Makati, the country’s financial hub, placed second with P15.506 billion.

Manila ranked third with revenue of P12.595 billion, followed by Pasig City, with P8.381 billion.

Cebu City’s earnings of P7.216 billion for 2015 outpaced Davao City’s revenue of P6.171 billion.

Other cities in the top 10 are: Taguig City, P6.104 billion; Caloocan City, P4.355 billion; Muntinlupa City, P4.154 billion; and Parañaque City, P4.05 billion.

Palayan City, Nueva Ecija—the country’s least populous city—only earned P277 million.

Other cities in the bottom of the list are El Salvador City, Misamis Oriental, P313 million; Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, P353 million; Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, P376 million; Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, P379 million; Batac City, Ilocos Norte, P401 million; Lamitan City, Basilan, P401 million; Cavite City, Cavite, P409 million; Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, P419 million; and Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental, P426 million.