STATISTICS BODY TO FIELD 100K WORKERS

PAGADIAN CITY: The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) had slated for May 1, 2020 a census on population and housing (CPH) in the Zamboanga Peninsula and in other areas of the country, utilizing more than 100,000 workers, most of whom public elementary and secondary school teachers, bared an agency official. Condrad Sontillano, PSA regional statistical specialist, said this year’s CPH that carries the theme “SamaNa, Census Na!” was designed “to take an inventory of the nation’s total population and housing units and necessary information about their characteristics… which are being used by the government, academe, business, health sector and others in planning.” He added that information given would be kept confidential by his office. Sontillano urged residents nationwide “to support and cooperate with enumerators for the 2020 CPH… which primarily aims at providing government planners, policy makers and concerned administrators with appropriate population and housing data on which to base social and economic development plans, policies and programs.” He also asked local residents to keep their household and stray dogs because enumerators were bitten by dogs in the past. According to Sontillano, the Philippine census is conducted every five years, with the last one held in 2015 — including Zamboanga Peninsula’s provinces of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay and Zamboanga del Norte, and their component cities of Dipolog, Zamboanga, Pagadian and Dapitan. He noted that censuses are officially administered by the PSA under Republic Act 10625.