The city government of Baguio is preparing to launch another data gathering activity in line with the need for local government units to comply with the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Act.
This time, information to be gathered through a survey covering all households in the 128 barangays will be collected and managed in one database that will become easily available for planning, identification of needs, implementation of suitable programs, impact monitoring.
City Planning and Development Office head Donna Tabangin on June 14 presented to the city council the plans for the implementation of the localized CBMS, for which the city has allotted P45 million for its implementation.
Tabangin said the CBMS is an organized process of data collection and processing at the local level and of integration of data in local planning, program implementation, impact monitoring.
In this program, the city will own and will be responsible for safekeeping of data and information that will be gathered.
Tabangin said information to be gathered are those needed in poverty profiling in terms of basic needs, such as health, nutrition, housing, water and sanitation, education, income, employment, and peace and order.
The city will hire 499 enumerators who will do the data gathering for three months. They will use a 31-page questionnaire in digital format, as part of efforts to migrate to digital format of census for easier data management and related with the city’s roadmap towards a smart city where collection of information and analytics are digital.
Almost half of the budget will be used for the purchase of tablets that will be used in the enumeration and inputting and processing of data.
“The goal is to complete the city’s entire geo database. This time with CBMS since we will be specific,we will get geo-tagged and granular information It would be easier now when it comes to planning. We know where services should be given because we know where the people who need these services live,” Tabangin said.
Through the CMBS, information are gathered at the personal level or those that are needed in updating the land use and city development plan, building permits, urban greening, contingency plan, infrastructure, road rights of way, mobility and transports, health and social services, and tourism services and infrastructure.
Tabangin said the city is partnering with the Philippine Statistical Authority and will soon enter into a memorandum of understanding for the undertaking.
Councilors Lourdes Tabanda, Art Allad-iw, and Levy Lloyd Orcales asked the City Planning and Development Office, as program implementer, to assure that the CBMS and information that will be gathered will not the Data Privacy Act, suggesting for the office to have focal persons that will assure compliance with law.
Tabanda also suggested the project to be closely coordinated with the barangays so that those in the barangays will be the one considered as enumerators since they are the ones know the residents in their areas.
Tabangin assured the Data Privacy Act of 2012 will not be violated.
The council requested Tabangin to furnish the council members a copy of the 31-page questionnaire to be used for the data gathering for review and recommendations as well as the project proposal of the CBMS including its detailed cost estimate. – Hanna C. Lacsamana with reports from Jordan G. Habbiling
