By Leonardo V. Micua
URDANETA CITY, Nov. 4 — The city of Urdaneta continued to lord over other cities in the Ilocos Region in terms of financial performance last year, as gleaned from the financial statement of the Commission on Audit (COA) for year 2007.
Based on the COA report, Urdaneta City leads seven other cities in the Ilocos, proving once more the versatility and durability of its people.
The report listed Urdaneta City as having the highest net income at P126,684,0000. Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. attributed his city’s fantastic performance to transparency in all transactions, whether small or big.
A very promising city, Urdaneta is the melting pot of trade and commerce as well as education in eastern Pangasinan because of its ideal location from east to west and north to south.
This was the third straight year that Urdaneta bested all other cities in the Ilocos Region in terms of financial performance. The first one was in 2005, then in 2006, Perez said.
According to the mayor, aside from adopting transparency in all transactions, he saw to it that the scarce finances of the city were managed well and invested well on projects that really redounded to the benefit of the people.
“Our secret in preserving our good financial performance was on the support of the business sector and the townspeople. We appealed to them to pay the taxes that were really due them and they did,” he said.
Perez, now on his third and final term of office as city mayor, said they also saw to it that they did not live beyond their means.
The COA financial statement also showed that Urdaneta, the only other second class city in the Ilocos outside Dagupan, registered the highest assets among all other cities in the region at P1,150,974,000
The other cities are San Carlos and Alaminos, also in Pangasinan; San Fernando in La Union; Candon and Vigan in Ilocos Sur and Laoag in Ilocos Norte.
Batac, another city in Ilocos Norte, gained its cityhood only in mid 2007 and was not listed.
Per the COA financial statement for 2007, Urdaneta was also number one in total equity at P888,445,000. On top of these, Urdaneta City also scored highest in total income among the region’s cities at P491,970,000.
In total liabilities, however, it had P282,529,000, second only to Dagupan’s P358,183,000.
Perez said they too maximized their tax collection efforts to ensure that Urdaneta functioned well as a public corporation.
“This is the third year that we lead in financial performance. But we are not boasting about it and neither are we resting our laurel and still persevere to achieve some more for the benefit of our own people,” Perez said.
The mayor said that although 2008 is not a promising year, there is no chance that the city will incur a deficit and is even hopeful it can register a surplus at the end of the year. (PNA)
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