Philippine Statistical Development Program (PSDP) Advocacy Forum 15 October 2012; 1:30 PM Ballroom B, Dusit Thani Hotel,Makati City by Hon. ARSENIO M. BALISACAN Secretary, Socio-Economic Planning and Chair, NSCB (Read by Deputy Director-General Margarita Songco)

Undersecretary Andy Cui of the Presidential Management Staff; Executive Director Merwin Salazar of the Senate Economic Planning Office; Director Rolando Toledo of the Department of Budget and Management; Administrator Carmencita Ericta of the National Statistics Office; Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag of the Department of Health; Assistant Secretary General Lina V. Castro of the National Statistical Coordination Board; Our colleagues, friends, and partners in the Philippine Statistical System (PSS), the academe, media, private sector, civil society, and international development agencies; Fellow public servants…

Good afternoon!

I am glad to see the various stakeholders of Philippine statistics gathered once again through this forum.

We stand here today at a time in history when demand and expectations for genuine social justice and positive outcomes of good governance are high. There is currently a renewed sense of nationalism in the country as well as excitement over the many possibilities of a society devoid of corruption and everything that has hampered our development in the past. We have just embarked on that concrete step that would steer our nation towards lasting peace and progress.

Lofty statements these may seem, but true just the same.

The reason we are here today is that most of us, if not all of us, believe that statistics is important to help us in instituting reforms and in developing plans, policies and programs to achieve  our nation’s goals. But producing statistics is not easy. Collecting, processing, and disseminating statistics need rational planning to optimize available resources, which I understand have not been quite adequate.

We, in the Philippines, are fortunate enough to have had a long history and experience in statistical development planning through the Philippine Statistical Development Program or PSDP. The PSDP, as you may know, is one of the principal tools for coordinating statistical activities in the country. EO 121, which established the Philippine Statistical System that we have today, specifically mentioned the PSDP in the functions of the NSCB. I have been informed by the NSCB technical staff that we are already into the eighth edition of the PSDP when many other countries have just prepared or about to develop their first national plan for statistics. This certainly speaks well of the advanced stage of statistical development in our country despite the still many unmet demands of users.

The PSDP 2011-2017 consists of the priority statistical programs and activities to generate the most critical statistical information needed by government and other stakeholders.  For instance, the information gathered should be able to inform us if we are achieving the outcome targets set out in the Philippines Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016 and in the Millennium Development Goals.  Our strategy to achieve these goals has been by way of good governance.  We have instituted reforms and we need to know whether or not these been effective.  There are other emerging concerns as well, such as social protection, hunger, children, innovation, information society, climate change, and disaster risk reduction.  If we implement the PSDP well with sufficient resources, we can in fact generate more relevant statistics and indicators.  We should, however, note that these statistics are relevant only to the extent that they are timely and that they apply to the level of disaggregation needed. 

By now we already know that producing statistics involves costs, sometimes huge costs, such as when the NSO conducts the Census of Population and Housing or the Family Income and Expenditure Survey, or when the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics administers their monthly surveys of crops and livestock, or from daily to weekly monitoring of agricultural prices in market outlets. These activities entail operating costs.  The more frequent the need for these statistics and the lower the level of disaggregation, the higher the operating costs.

Investment in technology is also important to ensure the timeliness and improve the accuracy of statistics.  But the bigger factor in generating these relevant statistics is the human resources that have to be especially educated and trained to collect, process, organize and disseminate these statistics.  Currently, our human resources for statistics can be found mostly in the major statistical agencies like the NSCB, NSO, BAS, BLES, SRTC, and BSP. If we consider the information requirements of local development planning, as we should, the current human resources are certainly not enough to provide for the statistics needed in local governance. While there are a few local government units (LGUs) that have good appreciation of and have invested in statistics, most LGUs do not have appropriately trained statisticians to generate, compile and analyze statistics. The PSDP does recommend that every municipality, city and province should have a statistical unit manned by at least one trained statistician. However, even this very minimum level of statistical infrastructure will entail tremendous amount of resources.

I would like to assure you that there is a high demand among us policy makers for good quality statistics. I am also committed to help improve this appreciation and use of statistics. Unfortunately, many of us who are not statisticians may have ignored this corresponding resource requirement. I understand that this resource requirement is being drawn up by the PSS, consistent with the Medium-term Expenditure Framework.  With a good MTEF, we will be able to rationalize and sustain government funding for statistics. I am also committing myself to help push for increased resources for statistics, to help improve the appreciation for statistics   

On my final note, I encourage everyone—all national and local government departments and agencies, including the Department of Budget and Management, as well as the Congress and the Judiciary to adopt and use the PSDP 2011-2017 as the main reference of the statistical development activities that must be carried out towards the production of better quality Philippine statistics.

I also urge the academe and media, the private sector and civil society, and the rapidly growing Filipino netizens, as well as our local and international development partners, to continue to support the initiatives of the Philippine Statistical System and to give constructive feedback to our dedicated statisticians so that they work harder as they always have to bring us good statistics.

Magandang hapon at mabuhay tayong lahat!

M.R. No. 2012-072

15 October 2012