Lipa Dropped To #19 In Ph Competitiveness Index

Lipa City dropped to #19 spot in the 2016 Competitiveness Index by National Competitive Council of the Philippines out of 110 component and independent cities from #13 last year while Naga City remained unbeatable at #1 spot. Overall (including Highly Urbanized Cities), Quezon City was reigned supreme as they claimed the Most Competitive City award this year overtaking Manila who was ahead last year while Davao and Cebu take 5th and 6th spots respectively.

The Competitiveness Index is being measured based on the sum of scores from 3 pillars such as Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency and Infrastructure. Among 3 pillars, Lipa City is once again lowest at Government Efficiency where it ranked only at #63 but soaring high at #7 in Economic Dynamism among Component Cities. In CALABARZON region, Bacoor was #1 while Batangas City was at #5 spot and Lipa City at #8. Please note that Highly Urbanized Cities like Lucena and Cavite City have their own ranking while overall ranking among Highly Urbanized and Component Cities are not yet available in the website.

Developments in Lipa City:
New international and local shops opened in Lipa City recently like Krispy Kreme, Kenny Rogers, Cabalen, Kuya J's, Dominos Pizza, Power Mac, Adidas among others.
SM Lipa is currently having major renovation on its department store as it already surpassed premier status in terms of sales while Robinsons Lipa did also a major facelift on its supermarket.
Additional major player in BPO industry has been added as well in Lipa which locked the city as among the top ten next wave cities in the Philippines.
Local entrepreneurs lined up in the newest food stop in the city via Metro Event Zone while few more additional commercial buildings are currently under construction which will give more options to shoppers, foodies and tourists including the first premium condominium and hotel building in the province.

With these exciting developments in Lipa, netizens are hopeful to see improvements and consistencies in ordinances, traffic, garbage collection, and security.

source: National Competitiveness Council of the Philippines website

Rock Liwag's Lipa Paintings

Lipa Status is privileged to be trusted by a young painter named Rock Liwag on his work of art to be viewed and shared in social media. His paintings, originally intended for exhibit last Lipa City Day celebration, illustrate the two famous landmarks of Lipa such as City Hall and the demolished arch which used to greet visitors coming from the north using JP Laurel highway.

Rock Liwag is 19 years old from Rosario, Batangas but his grandfather is native of Lipa. He is currently sourcing from his paintings to accumulate enough amount of money to continue his studies. He learned his skill by just viewing from other artists' actual paintings. Expressionism is Rock's style of painting which is the approach that departs from the conventions of realism and seeks to convey inner experience by distorting rather than directly representing natural images.

If you are interested on Rock's paintings, feel free to message him directly in his Facebook account https://www.facebook.com/rock.and.tron

Please note that pictures below are not allowed to be downloaded for personal or public use without Rock Liwag's consent.

Top 25 Thing You Should Know About Lipa City

Top Thing You Should Know About Lipa City

1. Lipa is the first city in Batangas which was approved on June 20 1947.
2. Lipa is currently the most populated city in Batangas as of Aug 2015 according to Philippine Statistics Authority replacing Batangas City (capital of Batangas) on top.
3. Lipa is consistently among the Top Ten Next Wave Cities or top locations for information technology business as chosen by DOST-ICTO, IBAP and LPC along with Baguio, Dasmarinas (Cavite), Sta Rosa (Laguna), Naga, Malolos, Taytay, Dagupan and Cagayan De Oro cities.
4. Lipa is attributed as Little Rome of the Philippines by Department of Tourism due its numerous religious houses.
5. Lipa is the home to world's best and multi awarded health spa and resort, The Farm.
6. Lipa is the last town elevated to Villa (City) of the Philippines under Spanish regime on Oct 21 1887 for its progressive coffee industry.
7. Lipa in 1887 was once the richest town in the Philippines because of its coffee industry and once became a major supplier of coffee in the world. From then, "Kapeng Barako" became an icon of Lipa and Batangas in general.
8. Lipa became known once again worldwide because of Marian Apparition of 1948.
9. Lipa's top tourism destinations are the century old San Sebastian Cathedral (which has many resemblance with St. Peter's Basilica of Vatican City) and Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church.
10. Lipa is also the most commercialized area in Batangas for having the most number of lifestyle destinations. Most of the shops branching in Batangas are first opened in Lipa or can only be found in Lipa.
11. Lipa is elevated 1,225 ft above sea level which is next to Baguio and Tagaytay cities of Luzon. It is nestled between two mountains which make its location safer from natural calamities.
12. The first woman governor of Batangas is from Lipa City which is also the city's first woman Mayor and now first Congresswoman, Vilma-Santos Recto.
13. Epson plant in Lipa City is the biggest manufacturing plant of Japan's Epson with expected workforce to reach 20,000.
14. Other than coffee or Kapeng Barako, Lipa is also famous for its thick noodle soup known as "Lomi". Lomi of Lipa originated in 1968 from To Kim Eng from China who came to live in Lipa. Everywhere you go in Lipa, there will always be a lomi store to eat.
15. The first elected governor of Batangas was from Lipa, Simeon M. Luz, who served in 1903.
16. Lipa City was once the cleanest and greenest city in Region 4 along with Puerto Princesa City during the 90s and early 2000.
17. Lipa's SM Mall is the 2nd largest mall in CALABARZON at present after SM Dasmarinas.
18. Lipa is the only place celebrating "Buling Buling" or splashing of water during Sunday before Ash Wednesday. It is a tradition but not regulated by either church or local government.
19. Lipa is 2nd to Calamba with the most number of banks in CALABARZON.
20. Aisa Mijeno, world famous and multi awarded SALt (alternative lamp that runs on saltwater) inventor is from Lipa.
21. Bishop Alfredo Obviar who was declared Servant of God of the Catholic Church in 2005 with saint protocol number 2398 is from Lipa City.
22. Bienvenido Lumbera, a National Artist of the Philippines and recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award is from Lipa.
23. Mikaela Dimaano Fudolig, former child prodigy who entered college at 11, graduated summa cum laude in Physics at 16, and took her master’s and Ph.D. degrees shortly after is from Lipa City.

24. Lipa City is currently #14 in ranking among top destinations for retirement choices of foreigners in the Philippines according to Lamudi Philippines (a property portal).

25. Jose Rizal wrote a poem "Hymno Al Trabajo" to praise the zeal and industry of the Lipeños in January 1888.

What other substantial facts do you know about Lipa?

More Residential Options in Lipa

From Torre brand, Lipa will have its first premium residential and condo-hotel type residences to be located in Lipa Uptown through Tierra Lorenzo Lipa.

It will have three 11 floor buildings consisting of hotel and residential condominium. Amenities included in the plan are pool bar, multipurpose pavilion, adult pool, kiddie pool, playground, fitness center and more. It will rise in Altamirano St., Mataas na Lupa, Lipa City just few minutes away from malls and schools. Site development is expected this month while construction of building 1 will start in first quarter of 2017. It will have a total of 678 units.

Another incoming residential project in Lipa is from Rockwell Land Corporation, the property arm of Lopez Group of Companies. Their project for middle income earner in Lipa will be their first residential township in Batangas.

Lipa City is currently the most populated and most commercialized area in Batangas.

LCP Visited Lipa City Police Chief

Arven Bravo, head Admin of Lipa City Philippines (LCP) community group, paid visit out of courtesy to head of Philippine National Police in Lipa City, PSUPT Barnard Dannie V. Dasugo. Also present were Eric Molato, co Admin of LCP and PO3 Anne Noriega.

PSUPT Dasugo is thankful for creating an online community based group for Lipa City where they can read first hand experiences, feedback and opinion from members. He is also amazed by the number of members LCP currently have and how members are highly engaged in posting and giving comments.

PNP Lipa is actively participating in LCP as well by promoting their programs and providing comments to some posts related to them through their account PCR Lipa. Since his inception last Oct of last year, PSUPT Dasugo is sincere in uplifting the image of City Police when incident of crimes in the City became striking. Last April of this year, Lipa City Police Station was applauded for having 0 crime in a week for the first time in history of Lipa through "Lambat-Sibat" project. Just this week, netizens of LCP praised Lipa Policemen for clearing the highway of Inosluban and Marawoy from illegal parking. He also mentioned that reported cases of drug users and pushers have increased remarkably from estimate 300 to 1,300 cases.

PSUPT Dasugo would like the netizens of Lipa to continue to be vigilant and to work with them by immediately reporting cases or incidents. They will continue to monitor posts in LCP as it also help them in many ways. The humble Chief also mentioned that the feedback they arecreading in LCP should serve as a opportunity for them to be better.

Lipa City Philippines or LCP is the pioneer social media group in Lipa and remains the biggest with more than 42,000 highly engaged members.

Indonesian Cuisine Is Coming To Lipa

Indonesian cuisine is said to be the most vibrant and colorful cuisines in the world with full of intense flavour. Some of their dishes are bakso (noodle), cap cai (stir fried vegetables), gudeg (vegetable and meat in coconut milk sauce) to name a few.

But the world's best Indonesian cuisines are Rendang and Satay which are #1 and #14 respectively according to CNN Travel. These authentic Indonesian dishes will soon be available to foodies of Lipa City as Sendok and Garpu will open its branch in SM City Lipa.

This incoming restaurant in Lipa is definitely something new in Batangas and will be competing with numerous Filipino, American, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Italian restaurants available in the city.

Sandok and Garpu will be another first for Lipa and Batangas in general. Their presence will continue to make our city as the food capital of Batangas.

Lipa City Is Now Batangas' Most Populated

According to Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA as of Aug 1 2015 (released May 19 2016), Lipa City is now the most populated among the cities and municipalities of Batangas with 332,386 residents which pushed down Batangas City, capital of Batangas, to #2 spot with 329,874.

Two years ago, I wrote an article in Lipa City Philippines group or LCP that Lipa City will soon become the most populated city of Batangas between 2017 and 2018 but it happened earlier than calculated based on the 3.11% annual growth of Lipa.

With heavy traffic and longer rush hour, multiple new subdivisions from low cost to high end, new commercial establishments that are sprouting like mushrooms and expanding commercial areas of Lipa City, there's no doubt that Lipa has surpassed the capital city of Batangas in terms of population while Lipa remained to be the most commercialized area of Batangas.

At baranggay level, Sta Maria in Sto Tomas pulled up on top as the most populated with 27,843 residents while Sabang stepped down to #2 with 23,535 residents followed by Santa Rita Karsada of Batangas City with 18,276.

I am excited to know the plans of the local government of Lipa in the next 3 years to improve the peace and order of the city, traffic, waste management, readiness for natural calamities and other programs & developments in Lipa considering rush of people coming in the city to work, study and reside.