PARAÑAQUE City, the home of world class entertainment complex and Las Vegas style-casino, made up the list of highest-earning cities nationwide in 2015, according to the annual financial report on local government units by the Commission on Audit.
The city posted an income of P4.05 billion, placing 10th of the top earners overall last year.
The 2015 annual financial report on LGUs covered 78 provinces (out of 81), 141 cities (out of 145), and 1,428 towns (out of 1,489) in the country.
Quezon City was the biggest earner with total reported revenues of P16.365 billion, followed by Makati City with P15.506 billion, and Manila with P12.595 billion.
Parañaque, adjudged the country’s most competitive city in terms of economic dynamism by the National Competitiveness Council, edged neighboring city of Pasay and Metro Manila’s Tiger City, Mandaluyong, and both failing top 10 earners last year.
Bulacan reported the biggest earnings among province in 2015 at P3.802 billion – still lower than the 10th highest-earning city, Parañaque, the CoA disclosed.
Mayor Edwin Olivarez vowed to dislodge other highly urbanized cities in revenue earnings as they expect P6 billion next year with the opening in December of Okada Manila, the newest casino resort in the Entertainment City.
The first phase of the project which will open by yearend consists of two wings and is designed with a gold exterior.
For this phase alone, Okada Manila is pumping in $2.4 billion in investments.
Casino mogul Kazuo Okada is committed to deliver the biggest integrated resort casino property in the country and is expected to employ over 8,000 people once fully operational next year.
The first to open at the Entertainment City was Solaire Resorts and Casino followed by City of Dreams Manila.
Aside from Megaworld, Ayala Land Inc. will also undertake projects in Entertainment City.
With measly annual income of P2 billion three years ago, Olivarez said they are expecting to reach P300 billion revenues over a five year period when all integrated resorts have been completed in Entertainment City by 2020.
Olivarez added with a substantial increase in the number of new business registration this year, now reaching 22,000 business establishments operating in the city, hundreds of million pesos in additional earnings will be attained.