Senate President Francis Escudero lauded local officials of Sorsogon, led by Gov. Jose Edwin Hamor, for steering the province toward sustained growth for the last three years, outpacing all but one province in the entire Bicol Region.
According to Escudero, Sorsogon continued its upward trajectory to post a 6.2-percent growth in 2023, increasing its economy in terms of gross domestic products (GDP) P79.18 billion the previous year from P74.54 billion in 2022 and P66.44 billion in 2021, based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
“We congratulate the good and industrious leaders of Sorsogon for the continuing the projects and programs we initiated toward the progress of our beloved province. We can now say Sorsogon has the fastest growth rate in the entire Bicol,” Escudero said in Filipino, himself a former governor of the province.
PSA records showed that only Catanduanes grew at a faster rate than Sorsogon after the former registered a growth rate of 7.6 percent in 2023. The rest of Bicol had Albay growing by 5.9 percent; Camarines Sur, 3.2 percent; Camarines Norte, 3.7 percent; and Masbate, 3.5 percent.
Figures from the statistics agency reflected the highest rate of growth in accommodation and food service activities at 22.4 percent although Sorsogon’s three top industries—construction, wholesale and retail trade, and manufacturing—claimed the biggest share of the economy.
Mining and quarrying, transportation and storage, professional and business services, and financial and insurance activities also grew at double-digit rates in 2023.
“We used to say in the past that the Sorsogon people were bashful when asked where they come from. Now, Sorsogon has gone a long way in economic development, and they are now proud to say they come from Sorsogon,” Escudero noted.
He expressed confidence that the current set of local government leaders of Sorsogon will continue to push the province to even greater heights in the years to come.
M “With the support of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and his administration’s Build Back Better program, I am confident that more projects will come to Sorsogon and the entire Bicol Region as well,” he said.
Among the major projects the Senate leader implemented in the province when he was governor from 2019 to 2022, were the state-of-the-art Sorsogon Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, the 7.2-hectare Sorsogon Sports Complex that has become a landmark in Bicol, and road networks that facilitated the flow of goods and services in the province and the other parts of Bicol.