May 2020 is National Census Month

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signs the Executive Order which prohibits illegal contractualization while delivering his speech during the 116th Labor Day Celebration at the IEC Convention Center in Cebu City on May 1, 2018. RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has signed Proclamation 928 declaring May 2020 as “National Census Month.”

Proclamation 928 provides that the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) will be conducted in May this year, with May 1 as census reference date.

The presidential proclamation directs all government agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned or -controlled corporations, government financial institutions and state colleges and universities, to ensure the effective conduct of the census.

All local government units (LGUs), as well as the private sector, are likewise enjoined to provide the necessary support and assistance to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Duterte, in his proclamation, notes that government executives, policymakers and planners with population and housing data base their social and economic development plans, policies and programs on the census.

“The 2020 CPH will be a nationwide government undertaking that involves the collection, compilation, evaluation, analysis, publication and dissemination of data on population count, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the population, housing statistics and other relevant data in each barangay, municipality, city, province and region in the country,” the document read.

Under Proclamation 928, all citizens and residents of the Philippines are enjoined to cooperate with the PSA and its census enumerators in the conduct of the census by “providing truthful and complete information in response to census questions, pursuant to law.”

The proclamation also encourages all administrators, authorities and residents in condominiums, exclusive villages, and other areas with special concerns to provide support in the census enumeration by granting access to deputized census enumerators.

“The national government’s thrust to decentralize functions to the local government units requires an up-to-date and comprehensive data of the population at the local levels,” it said.

Executive Order 352, signed in 1996, requires the conduct of a census of population and housing every 10 years with the primary objective of coming up with population figures at the national government level down to the villages.

Under Republic Act 10625 or the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013, the PSA is mandated to prepare and conduct periodic censuses on population, housing and other sectors of the economy.

The 2020 World Population and Housing Census Program, adopted by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, acknowledges population and housing censuses as primary sources of data needed for formulating, implementing and monitoring policies and programs aimed at inclusive socioeconomic development and environmental sustainability.

The program also recognizes census as a tool for supplying disaggregated data needed for the measurement of progress of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Duterte signed Proclamation 928 on March 13, but Palace released a copy of it on Thursday.