CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- With assets of P9.53 billion, Pampanga had made it to top ten list of the richest provinces in the Philippines, according to the 2017 annual financial report of the Commission on Audit (COA).
With the feat, the COA said that Pampanga has become a role model in governance and financial stability.
“Adhering truthfully to its mission of upholding effective and comprehensive delivery of social services, the Province of Pampanga is a role model in terms of governance, environment protection, promotion of culture, peace and catalyst of change through sustainable trade and investment, quality and affordable education,” the COA said in its report.
The province has meritoriously carried out its mission for the year 2017.
The Provincial Government of Pampanga is one of the few local government units in the country with a sound and stable financial state. It belongs to the first income class and has no fifth and sixth income class municipalities, the COA added.
The COA report shows that based on the Statement of Receipts and Expenditures of the Provincial Treasurer's Office, the total revenue of the Provincial Government from all sources amounted to P3.05 billion. There was P160.99 million or 5.70 percent increase compared with the total revenue of P2.66 billion in 2016, and an increase of 13 percent from 2015 revenue of P2.44 billion.
The 2017 revenue of P3.05 billion includes: P446.76 million from local tax revenues; P488.2I local non-tax revenues; P2.11 billion from Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA); and 8.84 million from other shares from national tax collections.
As of December 2017, there were a total of P13.11 trillion investments in Pampanga being monitored and assisted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Pampanga. These investments had generated 39,683 jobs in the province. The 2017 approved investments worth P123.3 billion in Central Luzon are expected to generate more jobs in the province.
Meanwhile, Cebu province is still the richest province in the Philippines in 2017 with total assets of P34.14 billion.
Cebu has been ranked as the richest province of the country for four consecutive fiscal years. It was followed by Compostela valley with P18.95 billion in assets in 2017 from the previous estimate of P3.74 billion in 2016.
Batangas ranked third with P15.56 billion followed by Rizal (fourth) with P14 billion, Negros Occidental (fifth) with P12.88 billion, Zambales (sixth) with P10.455 billion, Bulacan (seventh) with P10.451, Palawan (eight) with P10.15 billion, Iloilo (ninth) with P10.04 billion.
The provinces of Laguna, Nueva Ecija, and Leyte fell out of this year’s COA top ten rankings.
With three provinces in the top 10 list, Central Luzon bested all the other regions in the country. (With NCS and JTD)