'Yolanda' impact pulls down Tacloban's competitiveness, says mayor

TACLOBAN CITY, Sept. 8 (PNA) –- The impact of supertyphoon Yolanda nearly three years ago could be the main factor why this city is the least competitive among 34 highly urbanized cities (HUCs) in the country, said Mayor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez.

Tacloban, the regional capital of Eastern Visayas, got a score of 23.67, landing in the 34th rank, the least among all HUCs in the country based on the 2016 cities and municipalities competitiveness index (CMCI) of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC).

“This is because of what happened during Yolanda. We are still struggling and recovering from all these different post-disaster things that happened to us,” Romualdez told reporters.

The city was down a notch from 2015 survey, however, its score went up by two points from 21.67 a year ago.

The competitiveness ranking of local government units (LGUs) that is joined by 1,300 provinces, cities, and municipalities is based on three pillars: economic dynamism, government efficiency and infrastructure.

The increasing coverage of the index signified a higher level of interest and awareness on the importance of being measured based on the three pillars and a stronger commitment to improve LGU performance based on the resulting ranking, according to NCC.

The typhoon-stricken city landed in 32nd rank in economic dynamism, 34th in government efficiency, and 32nd in infrastructure.

This year’s CMCI has the largest number of participants, with 1,389 LGUs, 144 of which are cities and 1,245 are municipalities.

This equals to about 85 percent of total LGUs in the Philippines. The NCC revealed that when CMCI started in 2013, only 285 or 17 percent of the LGUs in the country joined the index, according to the NCC website.

The data used were gathered with the help of the 16 regional competitiveness committee composed of public and private sectors and the academe.

The overall competitiveness score is determined by the completion rate or all the number of data points filled out over the number of data points required. These information are sourced from the LGUs and national government agencies.

The study serves as basis for LGUs to improve their competitiveness to attract investments and contribute to socioeconomic development. (PNA)

JMC/SARWELL Q. MENIANO