THE PHILIPPINE Statistics Authority (PSA) XI said they are 30% finished with the 2024 Population Census Community-Based Monitoring System (POPCEN-CBMS) implemented in Davao City.
The PSA XI partnered with the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) for the POPCEN-CBMS, a nationwide activity conducted to update social registries for targeting beneficiaries in the city, which started on July 15 and is expected to be completed on Sept. 16.
During the iSpeak forum on Aug. 22, Adeline Batucan, PSA XI Davao del Sur Provincial Statistical officer-in-charge, said the two-month project experienced slow progress due to the residents’ unavailability and hesitancy during the enumeration process, and lack of personnel.
“Medyo gamay pajud siya. We are expecting na naa na ‘ta sa mga 50%. Right now, we are fast-tracking, making strategies on how these can be built up. We hired more personnel just to fill the gap of those who have already backed out,” Batucan said.
Batucan revealed that their enumerators encountered challenges interviewing respondents living in condo units and other high-end residences.
“We are coordinating with the homeowners and barangays so that our enumerators could interview our residents along these subdivisions,” she said.
She said enumerators’ reasons for backing out are “being not able to keep up with the office’s advancement (such as using a tablet for enumeration) and personal reasons.”
“To all the respondents, I hope you will accommodate our enumerators for the CBMS. It’ll only take 30-40 mins. Just give them the chance to do their job as this is for the future of our community,” she added.
Edwin Bacalso Jr., CPDO statistician designate officer for CBMS, emphasized that the project could be utilized by national and local agencies, particularly to identify the vulnerable sectors in the community and the LGU’s interventions.
“We will also be coordinating with PSA XI in addressing these challenges,” Bacalso said.
Under the CBMS Act (RA 11315), the PSA is the lead agency for the CBMS implementation and further stated that “the data collection is to be conducted regularly every three years, and each LGU is the primary data collecting authority for CBMS in their respective locality.
Based on their data, PSA XI targets to interview about 1.9 million residents across the city, and they aim to turn over the data gathered by the first quarter of 2025.
