CEBU CITY, Philippines—For the 7th consecutive time, Cebu is still the richest province in the country.
This was shown in the recently released report of the Commission on Audit (COA) of its 2020 Annual Financial Report for Local Government Units (LGUs).
In the report, state auditors ranked Cebu as the wealthiest province in terms of pure assets and net assets or equity.
The province posted a total of P213,005,750,000 in assets. This is roughly P9.5 billion higher compared to the assets they registered in 2019, COA reported.
Cebu also tops the list of wealthiest provinces in the country in terms of net assets, at P208,271,460,000. Net assets referred to difference between total assets and liabilities.
Cebu is the only province that has breached the P200 billion mark, both in pure assets and equity.
When it comes to liabilities, the province only ranked fourth after posting a total of P4,734,290,000.
While the Capitol has yet to issue its official statement on this development, it can be recalled that Cebu’s total assets grew by more than 400 percent in 2019.
This after Governor Gwendolyn Garcia decided to reappraise the value of all province-owned real properties, most of which were located in prime locations.
The reappraisal made also contributed to the province’s growing income.
Other provinces that made it to COA’s Top 10 wealthiest provinces, in terms of equity, included Batangas at 2nd (P21.9 billion), Rizal at 3rd (P21 billion), Davao de Oro at 4th (P18.8 billion), Bukidnon at 5th (P16.7 billion), Surigao del Norte at 6th (P13.2 billion), Isabela at 7th (P12.5 billion), Cavite at 8th (P12.4 billion), Leyte at 9th (P12 billion), and Iloilo at 10th (P11.2 billion).
Cities
Two Cebu-based cities also made it to the list of the Top 10 wealthiest by COA.
These are the cities of Cebu, the province’s capital, and Mandaue.
Cebu City ranked as the 5th richest city in the country, next to Pasig City, after recording total assets of P34,754,360,000 in 2020.
Mandaue City came next, at the 6th spot with total assets amounting to P32,570,850,000.
But Mandaue City is wealthier than Cebu City in terms of equity.
The former’s net assets, based on the same COA report, is at P31,305,120,000 while the latter is at P17,681,040,000.
Cebu City is the 4th city in the Philippines with the highest amount of liabilities incurred in 2020, the state auditing’s body reported.
The city’s liabilities amounted to a total of P17,073,320,000.
Mandaue City, on the other hand, was not included in the Top 10 cities with the highest liabilities made in the previous year.
/bmjo
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