Sorsogon City, Bicol’s richest newly-created city

by Bennie A. Recebido

Sorsogon City is now considered the richest city compared to the other-newly created cities in the Bicol region as confirmed by Florencio C. Diño II, Provincial Assessor, in his weekly report forwarded to the office of the Governor.

According to Diño, the component city of Sorsogon ranks the richest with an average annual income of Php 170.9M, only 3M diminutive of the annual income of Iriga City. Next to Sorsogon City is the city of Masbate with Php 127.7M followed by Ligao City with Php 126.2M and Tabaco City with Php 124.2M respectively.

These four are all categorized as 4th class cities.

In the provincial category, Diño said, that Sorsogon province is classified as 2nd class with an average annual income of Php 339.4M (C.Ys. 2000-2003). This is about Php11M short for the province to attain 1st class reclassification which requires at least Php 350M average annual income.

He further added that among the component towns of Sorsogon, Bulan is considered the richest (1st class/Php 58.8M) while Sta. Magdalena, on the other hand, emerged as the poorest (5th class/Php 16.2M) among the fourteen municipalities.

Still according to Diño, in the entire Bicol region, there are only ten (10) 1st class municipalities. Of these municipalities, Bulan town ranks 5th with an average annual income of Php 58.8M, Php23.1M behind compared to the richest town of Daraga having Php 81.9M annual income.

Furthermore, it could be noted that the Bureau of Local Government Finance – Department of Finance (BLGF-DOF) issued Memorandum Circulars on the reclassification of provinces, cities and municipalities which took effect on July 29, 2005 pursuant to Department Order No. 20-05 of the Department of Finance prescribing the new income brackets for the said reclassification.

This income classification serves as basis to determine the financial capability of the local government units in view of the funding requirements of developmental projects. It is also used to determine the maximum amount expendable for salaries and wages, salary scales, rates of allowances, per diems, other emoluments of local government officials and personnel, the number of Sangguniang Members in a particular city or municipality, implementation of personnel policies on promotions, transfers, details or secondments and other related matters at the local government levels. (PIA Sorsogon)

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