Bontoc – In preparation for the 2020 nationwide Census of Population and Housing (CPH), the Mountain Province Provincial Census Coordinating Board (PCCB) was recently organized and the first board meeting was held on November 12, 2019 in the capital town.
The meeting was facilitated by PCCB Chair and Gov. Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr., Vice-Chair and Mountain Province DepEd Schools Division Superintendent Federico P. Martin, Executive Officer and Mountain Province Chief Statistics Officer Jerry G. Santos and Provincial Administrator Amador P. Batay-an together with members from the Provincial Government, National Line Agencies and Civic Organizations.
The CPH refers to the entire process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing, publishing and disseminating data about the population and living quarters in the country. It entails the listing and recording of the characteristics of each individual and each living quarter as of a specified time and within a specified territory.
According to Chief Statistics Officer Santos, CPH aims to provide government executives, policy and decision makers, and planners with updated population and housing data as bases to their social and economic development plans, policies and programs.
He said that the 2020 CPH will be conducted in the entire country on May 2020 and it will be the 15th census of population and the 7th census of housing to be undertaken since the first census in 1903.
The responsible agency for the nationwide census is the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) as stipulated in RA No. 10625 or the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013 and Batas Pambansa Blg. 72.
On May 16, 2019, The PSA Board passed a resolution approving the composition and terms of reference of the Regional, Provincial, City and Municipal Census Coordinating Boards. It also specified and enumerated the composition and assigned functions of each of the Census Coordinating Boards.
Meanwhile, the Executive Order No. 34, s. 2019 or “An Order Organizing the PCCB in Mountain Province for the 2020 CPH” that was signed by Governor Lacwasan stipulates that the formation and operation of the Census Coordinating Boards are integral parts of the overall structure and the mechanism that the board designed to facilitate the efficient implementation of the 2020 CPH.
During the meeting, Santos presented the roles and responsibilities of the members of the board. He also assured that the information to be given to the census enumerators are strictly confidential.
Section 26 of RA No. 10625 states that individual data furnished by a respondent to statistical inquiries, surveys and censuses conducted by the PSA shall be considered privileged communication and as such these shall be inadmissible as evidence in any proceeding. It further stipulates that the PSA-released data gathered from censuses will only be in the form of summaries or statistical tables in which no reference to an individual, corporation, association, partnership and institution or business enterprise shall appear. Meanwhile, Governor Lacwasan assured that the provincial government is always ready to provide the necessary assistance. He further urged the member agencies to provide the necessary data, assistance or information that would help in the success of the census.
