BONTOC, Mountain Province – To facilitate smooth and efficient conduct of the 2024 Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) rollout in the capital town, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Mountain Province led the convening of the Municipal CBMS Coordinating Board on April 24 at the Bontoc Municipal Capitol.
The meeting was attended by municipal government offices and partner stakeholders including the Bontoc Public School District, Department of the Interior and Local Government Bontoc field office, Bontoc Municipal Police Station (MPS), and civil society organizations.
On behalf of Mayor Jerome Tudlong, Jr., Municipal Administrator Eric Fulangen, Sr. presided over the meeting.
Senior Statistical Specialist Jhay Sapdoy from the PSA Mountain Province, who is also the CBMS and Census of Population (PopCen) provincial focal person, provided an overview of the 2024 CBMS rollout, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and assistance from the Municipal Coordinating Board members.
Republic Act 11315 mandates the CBMS to collect essential data for evidence-based policymaking and program implementation at the municipal level. The CBMS will streamline the identification of beneficiaries for social protection programs, perform thorough poverty analysis, and prioritize community needs.
The CBMS upholds individual privacy rights in strict compliance with RA 10173, the Data Privacy Act of 2012, and RA 10625, the Philippine Statistical Act of 2014. It has implemented stringent measures to ensure responsible and secure handling of all collected information.
Sapdoy added through the 2024 PopCen-CBMS, the government will be able to update the inventory of the total population; update the list of beneficiaries of government social protection programs thereby reducing leakages; update the number of eligible voters in time for the 2025 midterm elections; update the shares of the LGU in the National Tax Allotment; aid in the implementation of the recently signed RA 11964 or the Automatic Income Classification of LGU Act; and aid in the efficient use of government resources.
Based on RA 11315, the PSA is the lead agency for the CBMS implementation. Each LGU is the primary data-collecting authority for CBMS in their respective locality.
The 2024 CBMS operations shall be a comprehensive enumeration of all households and geo-tagging of all service facilities and government projects in the locality.
Tudlong, Jr. said the conduct of CBMS is a welcome development as it could generate registries of target beneficiaries as an aid to more focused delivery of local government interventions.
He added the collaboration between the municipal government and PSA underscores a mutual dedication to fostering positive transformations, advancing sustainable development, and enhancing the well-being of the residents through the utilization of dependable data.
Sapdoy said the hiring and recruitment of enumerators for Household Data Collection and Processing will be in May while the target for actual data collection is from July to September.
For the Geotagging of Service Facilities and Government Projects, the hiring and recruitment is in August while the geotagging and processing is from October to November.
The PSA will also schedule training for the identified personnel from the municipal government on data management and analysis, data privacy and security, thematic mapping, and others. – Alpine L. Killa-Malwagay
