Puerto Princesa City reports accomplishments on asset management

On December 7, 2018, Puerto Princesa City government’s Asset Management Team conducted a year-end assessment and planning activity to highlight accomplishments and challenges as basis for setting goals for 2019. The team was able to review the city’s real property portfolio to determine what assets to develop and what to dispose. With the help of the new land information system, the team was able to integrate land details and value with building footprints, roads, vulnerable areas, and land classification. Furthermore, the creation of the asset management council and the technical working group, and collaboration among key offices led to the reduction of reported discrepancy in amount acquired or paid for real properties, from PhP720 million to PhP2 million at the end of the year. City Administrator Atty. Arnel Pedrosa commended the Asset Management Team for the accomplishments. "Finding, collecting, reconciling and identifying assets is not an easy task. It requires us to perform better. I commend the team for a job well done and for putting in results even at its infancy stage," said Atty. Pedrosa. He also posed the challenge of achieving better performance as there are more properties to account. The city government also partnered with the Provincial Government of Palawan to formalize the conduct of training for the province-wide implementation of the E-TRACS operationalization. This partnership will provide support to municipal governments in terms of managing real property data. The assessment refueled the commitment and enthusiasm of the team to continue the culture of information sharing and cooperation. USAID’s Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity (SURGE) Project is a partner of the Puerto Princesa City government in enhancing real property asset management.