Tagbilaran City remained the most competitive city in Central Visayas for 2015 under the component cities category according to the cities and municipalities competitiveness index of the National Competitive Council/Philippines.
However, nationwide, it’s ranking slid down to six notches lower – from no. 28 in 2014 to no. 34 this year as it failed to maintain its high rating in the government efficiency index.
Ranked 6th in 2014 among 136 cities nationwide under the government efficiency indicator, Tagbilaran City took a dive in 2015 with a miserable ranking of 51 among 108 component cities in the country.
City Administrator Leonides Edi Borja when asked by the Chronicle to explain the stark contrast to the 2014 ranking said “It was an inadvertent mix-up of data that was transmitted to the National Competitive Council that resulted in the steep decline of our 2015 ranking in government efficiency”.
Rankings are based on data collected and submitted by the Regional Competitiveness Councils (RCC’s) to the National Competitiveness Council.
Government Efficiency as defined by the National Competitive Council refers to the quality and reliability of government service and support for effective and sustainable productive expansion.
Among its indicators are the transparency and economic scores in Local Governance Performance Management Systems, the ratio of LGU collected tax to LGU revenue and business registration efficiency.
However, under the Infrastructure pillar, Tagbilaran City gained the highest when it’s ranking rose dramatically from 62 to 25 and is still the best in the region.
Investments in infrastructure resulted in the increase in concreted roads that led to a rise in the number of public transportation vehicles. The city was ranked 77 nationwide in investment in infrastructure in 2015 compared to 105 in 2014.
As defined by the National Competitive Council, infrastructure refers to the physical building blocks that connect, expand and sustain a locality and it’s suroundings to enable the provision of goods and services.
It covers indicators that includes existing road networks, annual investments in infrastructure, health and education infrastructures, and availability of basic utilities.
The number of transportation vehicles, connections to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the number of Automated Teller Machines (ATM’s) are also among the indicators.
Rankings of Cities under two categories – highly urbanized cities and component cities are based on the sum of their scores on the three pillars, according to the National Competitive Council. The higher the score of a city or municipality, the more competitive it is.
In the regional level, Tagbilaran city ranked first in competitiveness for the second straight year besting five component cities from Cebu – Talisay, Toledo, Carcar, Naga, Danao including Bogo.
Bogo, an independent component city was included in the rankings by the Chronicle but excluded component cities from Negros Oriental by virtue of Executive Order No. 183 issued on May 29, 2015 by President Benigno Aquino lll, the province of Negros Oriental was transferred to the Negros Island Region.
Tagbilaran City’s ranking in Economic Dynamism rose 22 ranks higher from 45 in 2014 to 23 in 2015 and was still the most competitive in the region.
Economic Dynamism, according to the National Competitive Council is usually associated with activities that create stable expansion of business and industries and higher employment.
The cities and municipalities index ranks cities and municipalities based on an overall competitiveness score which is the sum of scores on the three main pillars – economic dynamism, government efficiency and infrastructure which pool data from several sub-indicators.
The seven component cities in Central Visayas, their national rank and Mayors: 34 Tagbilaran City – John Geesnell “Baba” Yap, 53 Bogo – Celestino Martinez, 72 Danao – Ramon Durano lll, 83 Talisay – Johnny De Los Reyes, 85 Carcar – Nicepuro Apura, 92 Toledo – John Henry Osmena.
The RCC ranked 108 component cities in 2015.
The cities and municipalities competitiveness index was developed by the National Competitiveness Council with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development. (Chito M. Visarra)