We’re counting on you
If there is a national activity that deserves the participation and support of every Filipino, that would be the national census.Actually, the participation of the head of family or a responsible adult in the household would suffice for the 2005 census of population that started yesterday across the country.
The National Statistics Office shall cover all residents, Filipinos and foreigners, who have stayed or expect to stay in the country for at least a year, by province, city, town and barangay. Overseas workers shall be counted.
To ensure comprehensiveness, the census shall cover institutional populations such as those living in hospitals, sanitariums, military camps, convents and seminaries. Condominiums and exclusive villages shall also be enumerated using a self-administered questionnaire.
Census enumerators carrying pink umbrellas and wearing ID cards trimmed with pink lace will interview every household. They will gather information on the number of people in the house, their age, sex, marital status, education and other demographic, economic and social indicators.
Should you worry that the interviewer may reveal family secrets or personal information? The law says that any and all information obtained during the census, including the identities of the interviewees, are confidential. Only the statistics will be released.
The information gathered and organized helps in the formulation of development plans, policies and programs at the national and local levels, in the government and the private sectors. They are useful for national planning bodies like the NEDA or local think tanks like the one at the city hall.
The information has many uses. It serves, for example, as a basis for internal revenue allotment of local governments, apportionment of congressional seats, and the creation of new towns or new congressional districts
Big and medium industries and businesses use the information as a basis for expansion, relocation, estimating consumer demand for goods and services or determining the size of the labor supply.
National and international programs that serve the national interest—such as foreign relations, legislation, the administration of justice, national and local elections, defense and national security—are strengthened by the numbers furnished by the census.
The new census has raised concerns again on the issue of population policy. The 2000 census revealed that there were 76.5 million in the Philippines. Using this as baseline, the NSO has projected the current population at 88.7 million on a projected population growth rate of 2.36 percent.
NSO Director Carmelita Ericta said the government should aim for a two percent or lower growth rate after the head of the NSO household statistics department described the current population growth as “explosive and unacceptable.” This is debatable.
The census is considered an important human activity since the biblical times. The most famous census took place more than two thousand years ago when Joseph and Mary set out from Nazareth to register in his hometown of Bethlehem in compliance with an order by Caesar Augustus when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Not an imperial decree but a law mandates the new census. We need not go out of the house to be enumerated, but wait we must for the enumerator who will brave rain, floods, the neighborhood toughies and dogs to interview us for a few minutes to help establish a national snapshot that tells us who we are, how big we are, where we reside, how we live, and where we are going.
We’re counting on them
AFTER ordering the merciful release of minors from the national prisons and local jails, President Arroyo has ordered Interior Secretary Rony Puno to expand and improve jails in Metro Manila.
Does she mean it? Will or can Secretary Puno carry out her order?
City, municipal and provincial jails are a national embarrassment. They treat prisoners almost like animals. If there are facilities that our government would rather not be visited by foreigners, including the delegates to the Asean meetings, that would be your local jail.
Our jails are notorious for overcrowding, fetid air, unsafe water, dirty toilets and violence. In many prisons, inmates have to take turns sleeping.
Most were built decades ago to house small prison populations. The Quezon City jail was built for 800 but houses 3,400. The Caloocan City jail takes in more prisoners than it was built for.
The United Nations, the European Union and the Commission on Human Rights have taken note of conditions at the prisons and have described them as deplorable.
The President should talk to Speaker Jose de Venecia whose House can increase the money for the food allowance (P30 a day) of inmates or for the improvement of jails. There is not much the DILG or the Department of Justice (which administers the national prison) can do without the money.
But it’s noteworthy that President Arroyo has cast an eye on our prisons. She should back that up by actively lobbying the House or sharing her special funds with prison administrations.
