Iloilo still top city outside NCR but drops to 5th in 2024 rankings

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

In time for its 87th Charter Day celebration, Iloilo City added another accolade to its growing list of achievements by being recognized as one of the top highly urbanized cities (HUC) in the country.

In 2024, Iloilo City emerged as the leading HUC outside the National Capital Region (NCR), ranking 5th overall in the country, following closely behind Quezon City, Pasay, Manila, and Muntinlupa.

“I am proud of the achievements of Iloilo City. This is a testament to our teamwork and resilience. Everyone worked so hard. Thank you for your hard work for Iloilo City,” said Mayor Jerry Treñas in a statement.

However, the city slipped one spot from its 4th place ranking last year, overtaken by Muntinlupa City.

The rankings are based on the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), developed by the National Competitiveness Council with the help of the Regional Competitiveness Committees and the United States Agency for International Development.

Iloilo City’s overall score increased to 52.2872 from 51.04 in 2023. The ranking is determined by cumulative scores across five pillars: Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure, Resiliency, and Innovation.

In the government efficiency category, the city advanced to 1st place from 2nd last year. This category includes factors such as social protection, healthcare capacity, peace and order, school services, and investment promotion.

Despite improving its scores in infrastructure and resiliency, Iloilo City maintained its 9th and 5th positions, respectively, in these categories.

However, the city saw a significant drop in economic dynamism, falling from 4th place last year to 7th this year.

The economic dynamism ranking showed that the city suffered low scores in indicators such as economy size, economic growth, cost of living, employment generation, financial deepening, productivity, and the cost of doing business.

In the innovation category, Iloilo City also dropped from 4th place in 2023 to 5th place this year.

The award was presented during the Philippine Creative Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Congress on August 23 at the Manila Hotel.

The CMCI “aims to build local competitiveness and strategically map out how to make cities and municipalities more competitive using a set of indicators that will serve as a diagnostic tool to assess their level of competitiveness.”