Sual No.2 Richest Town in Ph – COA

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SUAL – This high incomes municipality became the second richest town in the Philippines as based on the 2017 Annual Financial Report (AFR) of the Commission on Audit.

By eclipsing the municipality of Limay, Bataan last year as the second rank of the 1,489 towns across the country, COA said that this 1,218 megawatts coal power plant hosting town has an asset of P2.53 billion.

Sual, Pangasinan Mayor Roberto L. Arcinue.

The COA report cited that the following top ten richest towns in the Philippines and their corresponding assets in Philippines Peso are Cainta, Rizal (No. 1 with P3.99 billion); Sual, Pangasinan (No. 2 with P2.53 billion); Limay, Bataan (No. 3 P2.45 billion); Sto. Tomas, Batangas (No. 4 with P2.15 billion); Binangonan, Rizal ( No. 5 with P2.1 billion); Mariveles, Bataan (No. 6 with P2 billion); Tanay, Rizal ( No. 7 with P1.79 billion); Carmona, Cavite (No. 8 with P1.66 billion); Narvacan, Ilocos Sur (No. 9 with P1.63 billion; and Silang, Cavite (No. 10 with P1.6 billion).

Mayor Roberto Arcinue  however questioned the COA report that this town had the number of highest total liability (T.L) of P1.65 billion, current liability (C. L) of P1.65 billion, and non-current liability (N.C.L) of  P0.07.

“We do not have any debt to any banks. I could not understand why the COA cited that amount,” he told this paper.

The first and the last in ranks with the most and least liabilities in the top ten were Cainta, Rizal with T.L of P1.8 billion, C.L of P1.8 billion and P18.95 million  and Sto. Thomas, Batangas with T.L of P567 million, C.L of P448 million and P1.18 million.  

This richest municipality of the 44 towns’ Pangasinan province each year earned more or less P200 million from the business taxes from theTeam Sual Corporation (TSC) and the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) that procured and sold in the market the electricity generated by the TSC.

“Other revenues came from the annual P110 million Internal Revenue Allotment from the national government, the Real Property Taxes, share from the Special Education Fund, tens of million pesos a year business tax from the huge hundreds of bangus fish cages where this town was dubbed by the Bureau of Fisheries & Natural Resources as the biggest milk fish producer in the country, and others,” Arcinue stressed.

Because of the huge revenues from these entities, the social services given back by the Arcinue Administration to its constituents could not be emulated by any cities or towns in Pangasinan and probably by other local government units in Northern Luzon.

 He cited that each of the 19 villages here had been given a brand new Toyota L-300 utility van to help the community, 12 brand new mini-dump trucks for the use of the barangays, a newly constructed 10 bed rooms hospital with one doctor and two consultant doctors to boot and three more surgeons to be hired, free medicines to his constituents, almost all roads in this town proper and villages are paved and concretized, 45% of the huge yearly budget goes to the salaries of this LGU’s workers where a job – order employee receives P355 a day and the department head gets P70,000 monthly in regular pay and allowances.

Due to the hundreds of million of pesos business tax from the coal power plant and SMC, this town has more than P300 million annual appropriation this year.

The mayor said with the entry of the second 1,000 megawatt power plant from the Korean Power Corporation (KEPCO), this town could be the richest municipality in the country what with the additional P600 million a year from RPT and the business tax it will be paying to the public coffer here.

“Papasok dito including school board o Special Education Fund almost P600 million si KEPCO because private. The rate of the Napocor kasi parang government iyan may special law. Real Property Tax, malaki ito P600 million including the education fund,” he stressed.

Arcinue said that after the construction by the KEPCO of the second biggest coal power plant in the country, the economic streak of this town will be unstoppable and mind boggling that could benefit the entire Pangasinan province in terms of employment and multi-plier effects.

The seasoned mayor cited the deep natural water harbor here where he built a P150 million wharf, first of the three phases, he budgeted from the business and real property taxes the town collected from the business entities here.

He said the linchpins of the economic growth of this town founded in 1805 are his vision to host a power plant, sea port, ship building, oil depot just like those in Batangas Province, and a tourism hub.

In the last two years President Rodrigo Duterte held at the Sual Sea Wharf and Causeway Area (SSWCA) the ceremonial sent - off of Vietnamese fishermen caught sea poaching in the provincial water.

In the middle of November this year, Mayor Arcinue will be hosting presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sarah Duterte and other national figures who will grace the inauguration of the SSWCA.