Public urged: Support 2015 population census

CEBU, Philippines- The Philippine Statistics Authority has urged the public to support the 2015 census on population by answering questions from enumerators.

Edwina Carriaga, PSA-7 officer-in-charge, said the census will start on August 10 and will last until the second week of September.

Carriaga said they are facing a very big challenge to ensure that all Filipinos are counted especially those living in condominiums and posh subdivisions.

“We asked nga ang tanan mo suporta gyud og mo-cooperate labi na kadtong nagpuyo sa mga condominiums ug high end subdivisions nga mao gyud ni sila lisud interbyohon kay ang atong mga enumerators di nila pasudlon,” Carriaga said.

Noel Rafols, PSA-7 information officer, said that all information that the enumerators will gather are strictly confidential and will not be forwarded or used by any entity including the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Rafols explained that the data will be forwarded to their head office in Manila to be used in coming up with the statistical summaries.

Rafols explained that under Section 27 of Republic Act 10625 or the Philippine Statistics Act of 2013, whoever breached the confidentiality of the survey will be fined P5,000 to P10,000 and/or imprisoned for three months up to one year.

He said it would only take 15 to 20 minutes for household owners or members to answer basic questions.

Aurelia Canda, head of the PSA-7 Statistical Operation Coordination Census Division, said the enumerators will be properly identified because they will be wearing official POPCEN 2015 ID, official shirt and will be given a raincoat and umbrella.

Canda said there will be 8,000 enumerators in Central Visayas. Currently the PSA-7 is training the last batch of enumerators. Carriaga projected that the 100 million Filipino population in 2014 will increase to P102 million this year.

In 2014, Central Visayas has a population of 6.7 million and it is expected to increase to 7 million this year.

Cebu which has four million population in 2014 is expected to be more or less five million this year.

The POPCEN 2015 aims to provide government executives, policy and decision makers and planners with population data, especially updated population counts of all barangays in the country.

It is from the data that the government will base its social and economic development plans, policies and programs.

Among the uses of POPCEN data include redistricting and apportionment of congressional seats, allocation of resources and revenues, identification of sites for establishing businesses, improvement of supply of labor for the production of goods and services, conduct of researches on population and relates disciplines, among others.

This year’s POPCEN will be the 14th census of population to be undertaken in the country since the first census in 1903.  (FREEMAN)