SURIGAO CITY, Philippines — Three years ago, Surigao del Norte was the country’s sixth-wealthiest province in the Commission on Audit (COA) tables. Its ₱16-billion asset book was hailed as proof of sturdy finances. Today, the same COA ledger shows the province slipping to the bottom half of the top 20 — about 18th or 19th — despite recording slightly higher total assets.
On paper, the numbers look all right: assets inched up from ₱16.68 billion in 2021 to ₱16.79 billion by 2023. But with other provinces’ assets rising much higher and faster, thanks to reappraisals and megaprojects, Surigao’s financial progress looks stuck in place.
Beneath the numbers is a deeper divide anchored in leadership.
District 1 (Siargao and Bucas Grande Islands), steered in Congress by Rep. Francisco “Bingo” Matugas, building on groundwork laid by his father, former Gov. and Rep. Francisco “Lalo” Matugas, has facilitated a tourism boom that lifts provincial averages.
District 2 on the mainland, under the watch of Gov. Robert Lyndon Barbers and his brother, Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, bears the social and environmental costs of renewed nickel and gold extraction, while ordinary vendors grapple with market rules and permit crackdowns that squeeze their daily income.
The result is a province that posted 7.2 percent growth in 2023 — the fastest in Caraga — yet feels poorer to thousands of fisherfolk, farmers, small traders and ordinary Surigaonons.
A tale of two districts
The contrast is stark. District 1 thrives on tourism. At the height of summer, as many as 19 flights touch down daily at Sayak Airport, with Philippine Airlines opening a new Clark-Siargao route in May. Resort owners speak of “record summers,” visible in every freshly poured villa foundation and bustling cafe.
Locals credit this boom to the Matugas team’s game-changing projects and initiatives — from concreting Siargao’s 162-kilometer circumferential road and lobbying for the island’s first commercial flight (now 18 a day), to ongoing international airport upgrades, construction of the famous AFAM Bridge, putting up the island’s first national hospital, expanding access roads, landmark legislation declaring Siargao a protected landscape and seascape under the ENIPAS Act, and promoting signature festivals like the International Surfing Cup and Game Fishing Tournament. These have transformed tourism income into concrete gains for barangays and small businesses.
Siargao’s Catangnan-Cabitoonan Bridge System, or more famously known as AFAM Bridge, was built by Cong. Lalo Matugas and finished by Cong. Bingo Matugas. Originally built to connect the barangays of Catangnan or Cabitoonan, AFAM bridge has now become a tourist attraction in itself—you’ll find local vendors selling snacks, skaters skating, and locals and tourists alike admiring its iconic sunset view (Photo credits to Sam Angers).
District 2 tells a very different story. Despite relying on mining and small-scale trade, the open-pit sites that once promised jobs have become monuments to stalled progress.
In April, residents watched as previously suspended operations in Barangays Mabini and Mat-i quietly resumed, tailings creeping toward rivers and putting communities at risk. Locals say decent jobs are scarce — or reserved for those politically aligned with the sitting administration. Those who do find work endure low pay, months-long off-seasons, and policies that make it even harder to feed their families. Many villages still lack basics such as reliable water service, while dirt roads turn to knee-deep mud each rainy season, forcing residents to rely on makeshift footbridges they built themselves. Repair for basic infrastructure damaged by natural calamities has remained unaddressed or delayed. Some Surigaonons call the current administration’s leadership a “hands-off” approach to enforcement and public services.
Surigao’s unfinished Anao-aon Bridge. A PHP 180 million budget was allocated in 2018 to repair the damages the bridge sustained from a 6.7 magnitude earthquake. Today it remains unfinished and unused.
The result: Tourism pours money and optimism into provincial coffers, yet mainland residents shoulder the burden — polluted waterways, unreliable roads and water lines, scarce steady jobs, and policy crackdowns that choke already-thin incomes.
Why the COA ranking matters
COA’s Annual Financial Report ranks provinces by total assets — land, infrastructure, cash, investments — giving voters and lenders a quick sense of a province’s financial strength.
2021 AFR: Surigao del Norte ranked sixth with ₱16.68 billion in assets.
2023 AFR: Province slides to about 19th, still at roughly ₱16.8 billion.
The slide hints that Surigao failed to book major new assets (bridges, hospitals, heavy equipment) even as other local governments did. Fiscal analysts note that flat asset growth, while peers are revaluing properties, effectively reduces a province’s relative wealth.
Competitiveness rankings slide
Surigao del Norte’s CMCI Competitiveness Ranking slides from 13th in 2021 to 29th in 2023.
Surigao del Norte’s fall is also visible in the Provinces’ Competitiveness Index, a Department of Trade and Industry benchmark that scores provinces on five pillars: economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, resiliency and innovation.
The Matugas administrations lifted the province from off-the-radar status into the top 20 during Gov. Sol Matugas’s tenure, and by 2021 — under Gov. Lalo Matugas — Surigao reached 13th place.
After the Barbers administration took office, the province slipped to 26th in 2022 and 29th in 2023, according to data on the CMCI portal. Observers note that the index’s sharp decline, alongside the COA rank slide, underscores widening gaps in public services and investor confidence.
The mining-tourism seesaw
PSA-Caraga data show Surigao del Norte posted the fastest provincial GDP growth in the region, leading some analysts to call it a regional “growth engine,” citing a ₱5.6-billion jump in provincial GDP last year, driven mainly by Siargao tourism and higher nickel prices. Yet only a sliver of that growth circulates in District 2’s barangay markets.
Policy analysts point to two reasons:
Tax asymmetry: Resort businesses pay local taxes that accrue to municipal and provincial coffers; many mineral producers remit excise duties directly to the national treasury.
Damage offsets: When rivers silt up or private property is damaged in landslides, the financial losses fall on household incomes rather than showing up on the province’s asset sheet.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has opened a fresh probe into a tailings facility linked to a mainland mine after cracks appeared along a barangay road last year. No results have been released.
Prices on the rise
Surigao del Norte’s cost of living has crept higher just as mainland incomes stagnate. PSA-Caraga data show headline inflation spiking to 2.6 percent in April 2024, up from 1.0 percent the previous month, with food and fuel posting the sharpest jumps.
For micro-vendors already battling permit fees and weak demand, every peso added to rice or diesel erodes what little profit remains.
Competing visions
Officials under Gov. Lyndon Barbers may contend that the current COA rank fails to reflect recently completed roads and schools still awaiting turnover — including a proposed Mainland Circumferential Road pegged at over ₱1 billion that remains in the planning stage and has yet to secure funding or a COA valuation.
Rep. Bingo Matugas, now running for governor, counters that Siargao’s community-first formula — transparent budgets, tourism reinvestment and constant dialogue — can be replicated on the mainland. He has floated directing a portion of tourism revenue to support pressing provincial needs such as health care, financial assistance and education. Supporters say Matugas’ work on Siargao gives the province a proof of concept to scale.
What happens next
Budget hearings: The Sangguniang Panlalawigan will tackle the 2026 budget in August; watchdogs vow to press for district-tagged spending.
Mining review: The DENR has promised findings on the tailings probe “before the rainy season.”
Election test: Voters will decide in May 2025 whether Siargao’s architects of growth — Bingo and Lalo Matugas — should steer the province, or whether the Barbers brand of mainland governance will continue.
The leadership choice
S
urigao del Norte today is an island paradise filling hotel ledgers and social media feeds, tethered to a mainland where livelihoods erode as quietly as the province’s place on the COA rich list. Yet the split is not ordained by geography; it reflects two very different playbooks.
Siargao’s model — tourism-supported livelihoods, government support for basic needs and open-book budgeting — has turned world-class waves into sustained community growth. Across the strait, a permissive mining regime has let the mainland’s richest resources bleed value and morale.
With ballots looming, analysts say Surigaonons face a clarifying question: Will they entrust the governorship to the team that lifted District 1, or double down on the stewardship that has coincided with District 2’s decline? The answer, writ in ink on May 12, could determine whether the whole province catches the same rising tide — or continues to surf and sink at once.