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Tanauan Reclaims Most Competitive City of Batangas Title; Lipa Remains Least Competitive

October 19, 2018
Image source: Google Earth Street View.
Image source:  Google Earth Street View.
Tanauan has wrested back from Batangas City the distinction of being the province’s most competitive city based on the 2018 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index released by the National Competitiveness Council last August. The index ranks local government units around the Philippines using data that attempts to gauge the competitiveness of each in four pre-identified pillars: economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resilience.

The index is calculated annually to give local governments a tool for ascertaining areas for “improvement and collaboration;” the private sector crucial business information; and academe “a take-off point for further research1.” Scores are influenced by the “completeness of the submitted data,” so it goes without saying that the diligence of local governments in collecting relevant data is also crucial to the overall rankings.

For this article, as it had done in the past, Buhay Batangas used as its basis the “All Cities” ranking to present the positions of Batangas’ three cities. The scores are markedly different when the “Component Cities” basis is used; and the rankings are altered as well. Why this is so is not explained in the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index web site; albeit one can hazard a guess that the weighting systems used in each varied.

ECONOMIC DYNAMISM
According to the Cities and Competitiveness Index web site, “economic dynamism is usually associated with activities that create stable expansion of business and industries and higher employment.” Although Tanauan tops the 2018 overall ranking, it is nonetheless Batangas’ least competitive city in terms of this pillar.

It is worth noting, however, that all three cities have lower scores than in 2017; and that Lipa, whilst retaining second place, had the highest drop in points with a loss of .755. Lipa also dropped 36 points from its 2017 national ranking of 23 to 59.

Scores
National Rank
Increase/Decrease
2017 2018 2017 2018 +/- Score +/- Rank
Batangas
5.5965
5.1847
17
36
 -0.4118 -19
Lipa
5.5089
4.7539
23
59
 -0.755 -36
Tanauan
4.6184
4.5651
49
78
 -0.0533 -29

Below are the chart representations of the above scores. The reader will please note that in the second chart, the lower the bar means the higher the rank.



GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY
Government efficiency is “the quality and reliability of government services and government support for effective and sustainable productive expansion.” As it did in 2017, Tanauan led the two other cities of Batangas in this pillar. All three cities of the province actually improved in this category, Batangas City with the biggest improvement of almost three points having 13.2867, better than the previous year’s by 2.7545. Consequently, Batangas City also shot up the national rankings by 60 places from 86th to 26th, just two places behind Tanauan City.

Scores
National Rank
Increase/Decrease
2017 2018 2017 2018 +/- Score +/- Rank
Tanauan 11.9032 13.6874 26 18 1.7842 8
Batangas 10.5322 13.2867 86 26 2.7545 60
Lipa 10.4936 11.9583 87 82 1.4647 5

Below are the chart representations of the figures above. For the second chart, the lower the bar, the higher the rank.



INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructure is “the physical building blocks that connect, expand, and sustain a locality and its surroundings to enable the provision of goods and services.” Batangas City still leads the Lipa and Tanauan in this pillar, and improved by .0445 on its 2017 score. Lipa, whilst holding on to second, turned in a score lower by .0174 from its 2017 output. The city thus dropped 38 places in the national rankings. Tanauan improved by .1781 from its 2017 score, but infrastructure continues to be an area that the city can improve on.

Scores
National Rank
Increase/Decrease
2017 2018 2017 2018 +/- Score +/- Rank
Batangas 6.4122 6.4567 65 65 0.0445 0
Lipa 6.3142 6.2428 40 78 -0.0714 -38
Tanauan 5.6677 5.8458 108 110 0.1781 -2

Below are the chart representations of the figures in the table above. Lower bars in the second chart represent higher ranks.



RESILIENCE
This pillar refers to “the capacity of a locality to facilitate businesses and industries to create jobs, raise productivity, and increase the incomes of citizens over time despite of the shocks and stresses it encounters.” It was introduced only in 2017. It was in this category that Tanauan City scored big, improving by 3.4048 over its 2017 output. The city also consequently catapulted up 34 places in the national rankings. Both Batangas City and Lipa also improved on their 2017 scores, but while Batangas City improved by one place to 20th, Lipa on the other hand dropped by 24 places. What this means is that while Lipa improved on its score, many other cities in outranked in 2017 overtook it.

Scores
National Rank
Increase/Decrease
2017 2018 2017 2018 +/- Score +/- Rank
Tanauan 16.4329 19.8377 35 1 3.4048 34
Batangas 16.8043 18.0994 21 20 1.2951 1
Lipa 15.7621 16.8406 96 120 1.0785 -24

Below are the chart representations of the figures contained in the table above. In the second chart, the lower bar represents a higher rank.



OVERALL SCORES
In total, all three cities of Batangas – not counting its newest city Santo Tomas – in fact improved over their 2017 scores. However, Tanauan’s 5.3138 improvement propelled it 25 places up to 19th. Batangas City improved by3.6824 points to move up two places to 31st. Regrettably for Lipa City, despite its 1.7167 points improvement over its 2017 output, in fact it fell 27 places from 55th in 2017 to 82nd in 2018.

Scores
National Rank
Increase/Decrease
2017 2018 2017 2018 +/- Score +/- Rank
Tanauan 38.6222 43.936 44 19 5.3138 25
Batangas 39.3451 43.0275 33 31 3.6824 2
Lipa 38.0788 39.7955 55 82 1.7167 -27

Below are the chart representations of the figures contained in the overall table above. In the second chart, the lower bars represent higher rankings.



For those who wish to follow through the data above and read more, please click on the following links for further readings:
Notes and references:
1 “About the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index,” online at the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index.

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