BY: REY ANTHONY H. CHIU
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, April 2 (PIA)
–In an attempt to reorganize and streamline the Philippine Statistical System
(PSS), the government now gathers at least four key statistical data gathering
agencies under one name: Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
It will be under the National Economic
Development Authority (NEDA) which shall supervise the agency functions as the
country’s premier census data gathering agency, according to a new law.
According to Bohol NSO Chief
statistician, Jessamyne Anne Alcazaren at a Kapihan sa PIA, Bohol NSO is now
preparing for the eventual transition, which entails a whole lot of changes in
their tasks and designations.
The National Statistics Office (NSO),
NEDA’s National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and Department of
Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) and another labor
statistics agency shall then be lumped under the PSA, by virtue of Republic Act
(RA) 10625.
According to RA 10625, the PSS shall
consist of statistical organizations at all administrative levels and its
support personnel and its statistical programs, including the policy-making
body, coordinating body with primary data collection capability, statistical
research and training institutes.
It also includes all executive
departments, bureaus, offices, agencies and instrumentalities of the national
and local governments and all government-owned and -controlled corporations
(GOCCs) and their subsidiaries that are engaged in statistical activities on
either as their primary functions or as part of their administrative or
regulatory functions, says RA 19625.
Through its Implementing Rules and
Regulations which was approved in December of 2013, the reorganization of the
PSS also attaches the agency to NEDA, and creates the Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA) which merges the major statistical agencies engaged in primary
data collection and compilation of secondary data.
Now, part of PSA is National Statistics
Office (NSO); National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB); Bureau of
Agricultural Statistics (BAS); and Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics
(BLES).
It also mandates the creation of the Philippine Statistical
Research and Training Institute (PSRTI) and abolishes the Statistical Research
and Training Center (SRTC). (mbcn/rahc/PIA7-Bohol)