Congress okays Phl Statistical Act

MANILA, Philippines - Congress has approved the proposed Philippine Statistical Act of 2012, a priority measure of the Aquino administration that seeks to harmonize and integrate the collection and compilation of data by various government agencies.

Approved before the Senate and the House of Representatives adjourned last week to close the 16th Congress was the measure that centralizes data collection and improves statistical coordination.

The measure was transmitted to the Senate on June 6, 2012 which recommended its approval without amendment through Committee Report 600 on Dec. 19, 2012.

The bill is now on President Aquino’s desk for signing.

House Bill 6229, authored by Reps. Ramon Durano VI (Cebu), Salvador Escudero III (Sorsogon), Rufus Rodriguez , (Cagayan de Oro City), Maximo Rodriguez Jr. (party-list, Abante Mindanao), Neptali Gonzales II (Mandaluyong City) and Tomas Apacible (Batangas), seeks to promote the orderly development of a statistical system capable of providing timely, reliable, accurate and useful data for the government and the public. Durano, outgoing chairman of the committee on economic affairs and sponsor of the measure, said the present Philippine Statistical System (PSS) operates in a decentralized manner.

 Agencies like the National Statistics Office (NSO), the National Statistics and Coordination Board (NSCB), Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES), Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC), among others, separately conduct collections, compilations and other statistical operations, he said.

He said the current PSS set-up “presents problems n duplication of functions, accessibility, statistical discrepancies and inconsistencies, outdated concepts and varying methodologies, which, altogether, resulted in a weakened system, undermining the quality and reliability of generated information as well as highlighting the lack of effective coordination among the different statistical agencies.” “The reorganization will effect a centralization of primary data collection, negating unnecessary duplication of work by the different agencies concerned with statistics. The problem of conflicting statistics and data gaps will also be addressed,” Durano said.