Makati residents get best perks, says NSCB report

According to the NSCB's monthly "Statistically Speaking" report, Makati City spent the most on education and health among all Philippine cities in 2007 to 2009. On average, Makati City spent around P11,913 for every resident, or around P6.37 billion a year. Quezon City, which has a bigger population, spent more per year, an average of 7.28 billion. Makati City spent around P2,541 on "Education, Culture & Sports/Manpower Development" for every resident--around P1.35 billion--each year. Manila and Quezon City were the next top spenders on education, allotting around P1.148 billion and P799 million a year respectively. But because of their larger populations, neither city made it to the top three spenders on education per capita. Tagaytay City, at Number 2, spent around P968 per resident, while Urdaneta City in Pangasinan was in third place at P832. Manila's per capita spending on education was around P640, putting it at tenth place, while Quezon City did not make the top ten at all. Makati also spent P1,502 on "Health, Nutrition & Population Control" for each resident, or around P804 million a year. Slightly behind in per capita spending on health were Mandaluyong City at P823 and Manila City at P621 per resident. This, despite Manila spending around P1.1 billion a year on health, the most for any city in the Philippines. "Surprising is the inclusion of one city in NCR (Taguig City) in the list of ten cities with the least per capita expenditures on health," NSCB said. According to data from the Bureau of Local Government Finance, Taguig City spent around P59 per resident on health, NSCB said. After Makati City, the city that spent the most for each resident from 2007 to 2009 was Tagaytay City at P8,502. Olongapo City (P6,974) is third, followed by San Juan City (P6,610), Mandaluyong City (P6,463), and Pasig City (P5,926). Puerto Princesa City in Palawan spent more per capita (P5,860) than Pasay City (P5,376), followed by Muntinlupa (P5,271) and Paranaque (P5,191). NSCB made clear that the data used in its report is limited. "Aside from the timeliness issue, the BLGF data (is) based on unaudited submissions by the Treasury Offices of the LGUs," it said. The recent report "focuses on the performance of the city mayors based on the income and expenditure patterns of their respective cities from 2007 to 2009." "Hopefully, the city mayors will seriously and objectively look at these statistics to help them pinpoint areas of concern that they could focus on to improve the situation in their cities," NSCB said.