COTABATO CITY – The Philippine Statistics Authority in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PSA-ARMM) has deployed 3,145 service contractors to conduct the 2015 Census of Population (PopCen) in the region.
The contracted personnel are composed of 2,402 enumerators, 604 team supervisors and 139 census area supervisors. The listing and enumeration for PopCen 2015 are scheduled from August 10 to September 6.
Pursuant to Republic Act No. 10625, or the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013, the PSA = known in the past as National Statistics Office – is the lead agency tasked to take an inventory of the population in the Philippines.
The last census done in 2010 registered a population 3.2 million for ARMM. The region is composed of the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.
The PopCen 2015 is a complete enumeration of households in the country and is designed to take an inventory of the population of the entire country. It also collects information about basic characteristics of the population such as age, sex, marital status, religious affiliation, highest grade/year completed and usual occupation, among others.
The project will also gather selected housing data such as type of building and construction materials used, especially roofs and walls, as well as barangay characteristics like presence of selected facilities and informal settlers.
“It provides government planners, policy and decision makers with updated population counts on which to base their social and economic development plans, policies and programs,” said Hji. Abdulkareem Suod Barodi, PSA-ARMM interim regional director.
The data and information gathered in the census will be the local government units’ official basis when preparing and filing ordinances. Barodi urged the public to support and cooperate in the population survey by supplying complete and correct information.
Section 27 of RA 10625 cited that “respondents of primary data collection activities such as censuses and sample surveys are obliged to give truthful and complete answers to statistical inquiries. The gathering, consolidation, and analysis of such data shall likewise be done in the most truthful and credible manner.”
Failure to provide truthful and complete answers to statistical inquiries, the law added, will be penalized with a fine of P100,000 and one year imprisonment.
The population count by province, city, municipality, and barangay will be submitted to the Office of the President for proclamation as official census counts in January 2016. (Bureau of Public Information)
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