Parañaque 7th richest city in Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines — Parañaque is the seventh wealthiest local government unit (LGU) in Metro Manila while Quezon City is still the richest city in the country in terms of assets, the Commission on Audit’s (COA) 2022 Annual Financial Report (AFR) showed.

Parañaque broke into the top 10 in 2022 with P27.3 billion in assets, dislodging Caloocan City, which had P27.2 billion in assets in 2022.

Last year, the Department of Finance-Bureau of Local Government Finance cited Parañaque as the sixth richest city nationwide in terms of locally sourced revenues during the fiscal year 2021.

The AFR for LGUs aims to provide essential information on the financial condition, performance, changes in equity, cash flows and comparison of budget and actual amounts of LGUs and the local government sector as a whole.

COA’s AFR in 2022 covered 81 provinces, 147 cities and 1,487 municipalities.

Among the 16 cities in the metropolis, Makati City ranked a far second with P239 billion in assets. Third-ranked Manila has P77 billion in assets.

Finishing fourth is Pasig with P52 billion, followed by Taguig with P40 billion, according to the COA report.

Mandaluyong’s P32 billion in assets also earned the city the seventh spot in 2022, higher than its eighth-place finish in 2021 when it only posted P31 billion in assets.

Pasay, with P17.9 billion in assets, placed 16th among the 20 wealthiest cities in the country while Valenzuela and its P13.3-billion assets joined the top 20. Within striking distance of the frontrunners is Las Piñas with P13.2 billion in assets.

Parañaque Mayor Eric Olivarez recognized the hard work of the city government employees and department heads, particularly the city’s business permit and licensing office (BPLO), headed by lawyer Melanie Malaya and city treasurer Anthon Pulmano.

Based on the 2022 actual revenue per office, BPLO is the top earning office, earning 45 percent of the total revenue of the city last year while the office of the treasurer contributed 15 percent.

Olivarez said that through the city’s good governance efforts and cooperation with each employee, they were able to properly reflect assets owned by the city.