Mindanaotoday.com | PSA vows to keep data confidential
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A regional official of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reiterated on Monday, August 8, their agency’s oath to keep all vital information from authorized surveys with utmost confidentiality.
Chief Statistical Specialist Janith C. Aves, PSA-10 officer-in-charge, gave her office’s word-of-honor to survey respondents that their responses will not be used against them, during the Community-Based Monitoring System launch at SM City Uptown mall in Cagayan de Oro.
The 50-working-day CBMS rollouts, being undertaken by more than 600 PSA-trained field personnel in 35 local governments in Northern Mindanao, kicked off that day.
“All of them (PSA-10 CBMS enumerators) are fully-vaccinated,” said Aves, and that their training included observance of minimum public health standards, taking into account their 2020 Census of Population and Housing experience when some enumerators caught the coronavirus.
But Dr. Jose R. Llacuna Jr., Department of Health-10 regional director, who also graced the CBMS launch, clarified that “fully-vaccinated” should now be expanded to include booster shots because those who had their primary series (first and second doses) are getting re-infected, lately.
Llacuna assured Aves all PSA-10 CBMS enumerators will be prioritized for booster shots and a schedule for booster-vaccination be set exclusively for them, even if booster doses are supposed to be given only to 50 years old and above, for now.
CBMS recipients
Meanwhile, Aves said 26 of the 35 CBMS-recipients, all classified 5th and 6th class municipalities or cities, are to benefit from the comprehensive poverty-profiling system rollouts, funded from PSA budget, while the other nine belonging to 1st to 4th income-class categories are funding their respective surveys.
Three of the nine self-financed CBMS are in Bukidnon’s Don Carlos, Impasugong, and Pangantucan towns, though those conducting these surveys have been PSA-10-trained.
PSA-funded CBMS in Camiguin include Catarman, Guinsiliban, Mahinog, and Sagay while Mambajao – the provincial capital town – is funding the rollout from its coffers.
Eight municipalities of Lanao del Norte, who signified intents for CBMS, got PSA fund support, namely: Kauswagan, Linamon, Magsaysay, Matungao, Salvador, Sapad, Tagoloan, Tangcal, and Pantar.
In Misamis Oriental province, eight also secured PSA-funding for CBMS: Balingoan, Binuangan, City of El Salvador, Gitagum, Kinoguitan, Lagonglong, Libertad, and Sugbongcogon. Villanueva town, however, is undertaking the CBMS on its own.
Meanwhile, the municipalities of Baliangao, Concepcion, Panaon, Sapang Dalaga, and Sinacaban – all 5th and 6th class towns of Misamis Occidental – are expected to take-off from their socio-economic status after this year’s CBMS.
But the municipalities of Aloran and Calamba as well as Oroquieta and Tangub cities are funding their respective CBMS rollouts.
Dimensions of poverty
Results of the CBMS, set to be released to the public second-quarter of 2023, would be useful in the formulation of local development plans, packaging of disaster responses, and in the prioritization of poverty-reduction interventions, the PSA-10 head said.
“CBMS results will be available at local governments since these form part of their data-bank,” said Aves, adding that the compendium of local facts and figures would include maps on various dimensions of poverty.
Enumerators, conducting house-to-house interviews with a 39-page survey material and app-linked tablets, would be generating poverty-related data beyond household incomes – information on health, nutrition, water, sanitation, shelter, education, employment, security, and participation in village-level decision-making.
Republic Act No. 11315, otherwise known CBMS Act of 2019, describes CBMS as a technology-based system of collecting, processing, and validating data that are inputs to local planning, program implementation, and impact monitoring.
The PSA-10 and DOH-10 officials were joined in by representatives from the Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Information and Communication Technology, and the National Economic and Development Authority regional offices in the CBMS launch cum forum. (MT)
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