Transcript of FGD with Government Units, Leagues and Other Sectors 05 December 2007 Romulo Hall, Makati City

Attendance:

Review Committee: 1. Dr. Vicente Valdepeñas, Jr. - Chairman 2. Dr. Isidoro David - Member 3. Dr. Cielito Habito - Member 4. Dr. Mercedes Concepción - Member 5. Dr. Lisa Grace Bersales - Member

From PIDS Mancom: Mr. Mario C. Feranil - OIC, OVP

Representatives from the government units, leagues and other sectors: 1. Ms. Ludivinia Gador - Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas 2. Mr. Alex Victoria - Department of Trade and Industry 3. Ms. Ma. Lourdes Yaptinchay - Department of Trade and Industry 4. Ma. Hazel M. Nicolas - Department of Trade and Industry 5. Mr. Jesse Alcaraz - League of Provinces of the Philippines 6. Mr. Rommel Balaoi - League of Municipalities of the Philippines 7. Mr. Pat de Quiroz - Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines

Inter-Agency Secretariat: 1. Dr. Celia Reyes (PIDS) - Head 2. Dr. Jose Ramon Albert - Member, Secretariat 3. Ms. Monina Collado (NSO) - Member, Secretariat 4. Ms. Lina Castro (NSCB) - Member, Secretariat 5. Ms. Edith Rivera (BLES) - Member 6. Ms. Lily Elloso (SRTC) - Member 7. Ms. Maura Lizarondo (BAS) - Member 8. Ms. Marilen Macasaquit - Support Staff 9. Mr. Andre Ramos - Support Staff 10. Ms. Lourdes Catacutan - Support Staff 11. Ms.Barbara Gualvez - Support Staff

Facilitator: Dr. Jose Ramon Albert

The FGD started 9:37 a.m. with Dr. Albert as facilitator guiding the participants through the presentation on the key issues of the FGD. He also requested everyone to introduce themselves.

FGD Proper:

1 Organizational structure & linkages

LMP: WE have as a current project, clustering of Philippine municipalities according to income, topography, demography, all types of data. We observed that in our PSS, we only cluster local government to provinces and regions and no available information that would cluster local govt into municipalities so we have to go around different agencies just to get stats on municipalities on population, income level, demography, type of upland or lowland. And in the statistical yearbook, there’s only cluster into regions and provinces so we have to generate data by going around different agencies. It would benefit municipalities if we have ready to use statistics that will cater to specific needs of like, profile of my municipalities, where can I get it? Each has own profile but they have to validate it with the national agencies. We have to validate various data like crime rate in a municipality and how do you compare that with the rate of provinces? We generated our own data, classifying municipalities into upland, coastal, lowland, no. of females, males, poverty level, lots of categories and we want to publish that into clustering of phil municipalities. We’re happy to tell you that we’ve just finished our study on clustering municipalities, we generated our own data classifying municipalities into upland, coastal, lowland, income level, no. of female/male, no. of poverty level, lots of categories and we want to publish it. That important to policy devt and project devt.

Valdepeñas: I just want to inform Prof. Balaoi that in our regional visit to CDO, the NSCB produces this document by province. Lahat nito my municipal and city breakdown so sa health, municipality to city, fully immunized chidren, given vitamin A, Malaybalay, Valencia, there’s a breakdown by municipalities. According to Dr. Virola, this kind of statistics is produced by regional offices ng NSCB. Sa crime rime, the tabulation is by province, murder, homicide, robbery, theft, nandito. You need to touch base with the NSCB regional offices kasi yung hinahanap mo, marami dyan sa data points hinahanap mo are here. Sa Bukidnon, every province covered by NSCB.

Albert: DTI?

DTI: I’d like to comment that sometimes it’s the lack of appreciation of the importance of statistics. Not all of them really use the data published. In DTI, we’re user of data like trade stats. We have priority industries but basically, data come from NSO, investments data come from PEZA, BOI. We work with IACs under NSCB. Sometimes the kind of data we need for policy analysis are not available. Like data on services, there’s lack of data in that sector. We try to come up with a framework, we have some indicators but how do we get data? Some of them are derived from the administrative and operational functions of the agencies but some of them require conducting surveys. And that’s the problem because NSO wld say they have no resources for that kind of survey. Hindi nabibigyan ng importance ang statistical activities.

Albert: How effective are IACs?

2 DTI: We sit in several IACs. I find that workable kasi you get inputs from various agencies. That way, you also avoid duplication. Magusap nalang kayo kung pano kumuha ng data. Ang issue lang namin, yung sa SMEs, kasi ang NSO by employment ang official definition dapat my capitalization. Yun yung mga issues that we want to raise, sa work program sa 2008. In terms of investments data, we have the FDIs, pero ano ba talaga data kailangan gamitin natin? Kasi we have approvals, then we have data on actual inflows. You have to put down the source. We use balance of payments data. Lagi kami kinukulit. Wala ba tayong system on determining realized investments? We have proj. approvals pero wala na tracking down on realized. We want to suggest a system in tracking down ano so we can have data on realized investments.

Albert: How do you, you’ve articulated them already in several NSCB committees, how do you consider, the system has its own constraints, there’s no resources for matching your particular needs. What do you suggest to improve the sys, how wld your problems be addressed?

DTI: There are times that we propose projects kasi but we have to go through, yun nga e priorities. Napakaliit ng budget ng DTI; if you look at our statistical projects, konti lang talaga. Wala kasi sa core mandate ng DTI na mag-generate ng data unlike NSO.

BSP: In terms of org structure, I understand there are offices of NSO and NSCB in the regions. Are there also reps from these offices? I was thinking that, if statistics are generated in the municipalities, then going up to the provinces then to the regions, that would be better. So less resources. The municipalities also need statistics so they have to generate their own which can be used by the provinces and on to the regions. So mas maganda setup nun.

Albert: Thank you. Any further comments on this topic?

David: This is addressed to the LMP. We’ve been going on that one major problem is increasing demand for local area stats including municipal level stats. But as we have also been told repeatedly, the present stat set up, the data collection machinery set up ng NSO and BAS, they’re not designed to collect enough data at those levels that the results can be credible. Like, the major surveys of NSO can only give you, at best provincial, and in some cases, regional level. So the EOs that underpin the present level were promulgated before the LGC. So one possible solution is dahil yun mga LGUs meron rin automatic share of revenues, they shd bear the burden partially of the requirements ng data at their levels. Yun bang municipalities would they be prepared to set up or appoint statistics officers, on permanent basis, whose main functions wld be to get data at the municipal level? If that proposal will be ano to the mayors, wld they be amenable to such a suggestion na dapat my permanent position ng statistics sa municipalities? Like a civil registrar? Paid by the local govt, trained by NSO on how to collect data pero paid by the local govt? If such a suggestion is put up, payag ba ang most local govts?

LMP: I’m glad that you raised that and that’s one of our major plans initially for municipal planning officers on how to use statistics on planning. Planning shd be

3 evidence based. Based on initial survey of our municipalities, many esp. 3rd or 4th class municipalities don’t have staff that are adequately trained in stats system so they have to hire statisticians particularly on comprehensive land use plan. Unfortunately, you have to create positions and to create positions at the local level, is mahirap e.

ULAP: Basically, the LGUs are users of data. In fact, in the LGC, there are so many positions that have been devolved to the LGUs and I think that’s going to add another burden to the LGUs. They’re not in the frontline of delivering basic services. So I’d like to disabuse the notion that the LGAs have the potential of generating data. It’s not the main function of LGUs e. Most of the data from LGUs are collected by the DOH, NSO and the major agencies but we don’t generate them ourselves. We’d rather use statistics po.

Valdepeñas: For your information, dun din sa CDO, we went to Iligan and we were surprised that the since 1993 the city council has appropriated P100T to assist what they describe as the statistical council of the city of Iligan. Whether the mayor is new or not, this council keeps operating and it includes 2 professors of MSU-IIT which has a BS program and masters program in statistics. We were also informed that in Northern Mindanao, several other provinces are beginning to do this. They are following the example of the Iligan city council. In the life of the LGUs today, it’s not unheard of that some city mayors have recognized the value of supporting statistical effort within their own jurisdiction. Maybe the problem is how to replicate that in other cities and municipalities in the Philippines.

ULAP: That will be a matter of initative of LGUs but LGUs in general especially the 4th – 6th class LGUs, kasi the proposal is for the LGUs to take the cudgels of generating stats for their own use. Most of them will be willing to lend a desk but not to pay for salary of statisticians.

Valdepeñas: Dun sa CDO, the secretariat of the council is the city planning officer and he is a CESO and he’s been there for a long time. He ensures the continuity. So there might be something to emulate in Iligan that Prof. Balaoi can look into. You might want to talk to the mayors about it. Obviously, for 5th-6th municipalities, baka hindi nila kaya but those cities that can baka they can get more IRA. The reason why Tuguegarao wans to be citified was to get more money. The point is, there are now cities in the Phils. that have financial capability. Itong sa Iligan is a very good model. You might want to discuss this in the Mayors Devt Center.

Rivera: I’d also like to share with you the experience of La Union. There is a position for statistician under the planning office but they have problem hiring a competent statistician. Parang everywere, given that impression that the local govt units can have 2 units under the planning office. It is provided in the LGC that the statistician position be created under the planning office.

Albert: The whole point is the system right now is to provide info for national planning purposes. But since there has been a devolution of power, after the fact of creation of

4 mandate, the question is given the situation that the LGUs have data needs that the system can’t address, and there are certain LGUs like Iligan that are active, but the question is, are these being done systematically? And as pointed out, if there are certain LGUs whether 5th class, 6th class which shd be needing more data, what can the system do? In theory, the LGUs have their own money, but can they pool their money? What can we do to address certain problems? Given the current institutional set up within the system. I hope we could think about this.

Valdepeñas: On trade information, the NSO doesn’t have all that largesse, so ang ginagawa namin sa BSP, when we were aware that the call centers were beginning to prosper, we talked to the NSCB if they will be willing to do a survey funded by BSP on that and they did. Same with the NSO on the OFW remittances, we wanted to find out how many of them go thru the banking system. Maybe you can find in the budget in DTI some money, you can have a partnership with the NSO because they have the network on these SMEs kasi malaking program yan of the national govt so you’ll have to persuade the Sec to find some money in the budget and NSO who have trained statisticians can design surveys for you to do this kind of info for SMEs.

Mandates and functions

Albert: Relative to specific mandate of the system that we’ve already been discussing, we’d like to know your views on how to assess info outputs? Adaptability of system? On a scale of 1-10 of the sys currently how is it able to deliver its outputs? Vis-a-vis your own specific needs?

DTI: In terms of outputs, there’s this survey for ICT that was published 2001 and since then, it’s supposed to be the baseline data pero since then, ang dami nang naging developments in terms of technology pero hindi pa nasusundan so walang follow up sa surveys so ang nanyayari, if you want to compare Phils. with other countries, yun lagi ang problema, hindi kasi yearly so walang regular output na data na kailangan natin.

Albert: Do you consider that, one issue is sustainability. You have a survey to meet a particular need but there’ve been no specific set of activities to ensure these statistical activities. It’s easy to identify the problem but finding a solution is another matter.

DTI: There’s an IAC under the NSCB and I hope that committee can address sustainability kasi lack of data in the services sector is really, kulang in terms of policy recommendations kasi if you don’t have sound data.

BSP: In terms of timeliness, there’ve been a lot of improvements. Kaya lang parang my problema pa rin, because of resources. In the case of NSO, one time, there’s supposed to do a survey kasi wala raw pondo, so what do we do about that? Timeliness pa rin ng output yun kasi they have to produce something but there’s no money to do a survey.

David: That goes back to what we discussed, if the system can effectively put up what are called designated activities including surveys, and put up mechanisms na in such a way

5 na pag nandyan yan magkakapondo talaga. Hindi yung nandyan nga pero di ka siguradong may pondo. If the system and the government agree, may EO dapat na ito ang activities that need to be done, dapat my corresponding budget over the years. On the issue of sustainability, ok, ang understanding ko, I heard that the IACs ng NSCB are doing alright but in the sense that many of these committees discuss frameworks and data requirements but again, if a survey is needs, sino gagawa? Hindi NSCB kasi it’s not a data collecting agency, does NSCB work at having a budget for NSO to carry out a survey. Baka yun ang kulang. You can have so may IACs and frameworks, data systems, kun wala data collected on a sustained basis, wala rin mangyayari.

DTI: Ang dami-daming IACs. And frameworks, but it boils down to the activities that you’d want to be undertaken para makakuha ng data. Identified mo na kung ano yung mga needs but it’s usually lack, of resources. Agencies like us expect the NSCB as the body to come up with specific recommendations on how to sustain the statistical activities and I hope that the project of the PSS will be able to come up with those spec recommendations. Kulang pa sa recommendations. Siguro pag nagrecommend, meron na rin budgetary requirements.

Castro: Allow me to provide addtl info on the structure and the process of the IACs. It’s not only limited to discussion of frameworks, it also discusses methodologies, and action plans, etc. We also have the Phil Stat Dev program which outlines what stat activities by the different agencies, what year and what corresponding budgets attached to these. In the budget process, maybe the agency itself, like FNRI, it has programmed a survey but it has to lobby within the DOST itself on the prioritization of the activities. There’s this part program pero there’s a budget ceiling. Yun ang problema. For example, it’s not limited to the discussion of frameworks and methodologies. The board approved the Phil Labor Index methodology, where in there is a program, and an action plan that said that the particular input shd come from the NSO, SSS, etc. So we’re not just limited to the discussion of frameworks and all that.

Albert: Thank you, Lina. Further inputs on the mandate of the PSS and how effective?

Valdepeñas: Dun sa specific requirement, on the DTI, di ba merong private sector trade association? Don’t they generate info on the volume of business they are doing? Do they generate basic info on what they do? They can share that with you in the DTI. The idea ng PSS, they refer to the government system but as you now realize, yung info you’re looking for on how many SMEs in Cainta, etc. shd be generated by trade associations.

DTI: Depende kasi merong mga trade associations na hindi organized, we also get data from them. But not all of them will be able to provide data. But when you attend international organizations and they ask for data, they want official data. Marami rin hinahanap official data. We’re told to always use official data.

Valdepeñas: Pano kung wala? Wala nang gamitin?

6 DTI: We also use data from associations pero for internal purposes lang pero when international organizations conduct surveys and want you to fill up questionnaires, ang hirap kasi dapat official data. They’d want official data.

Valdepeñas: In the old days, when I was actively working with the late Dr. Mijares, the Bureau of census and stats was collecting info on crosswise trade. And then domestic trade. I don’t see those around in the issuances of NSO. Nawala. Bat natanggal? Nuon it was easy to determine how much trade was going on between Cebu and Bohol, etc. But nawala.

Budget, human and other resources

Albert: Many of these things have to do with issue of budget. Many of you are familiar with the system so maybe you’d like to provide views on how not just budget but also human and other resources. What will you recommend to improve?

DTI: In terms of technical capacity, yearly we have budget for HR training. Kami sa tech staff we recognize the need to beef up capacity of the staff on stat analysis. So we recommend to our HR to package a training program for that so this year na implement with SRTC ang mga class sa statistical analysis. Yun nga lang, my training nga kami pero wala naman software na binibigay so hindi rin magamit sa office.

Albert: How about your assessement of the system itself? How do you propose solutions to improve generation of certain outputs?

LMP: Do you have training programs for LGUs on how to use statistics? We’re users of stats but my view is, LGUs shd transcend its role as just users, LGUs shd also collect and manage. It’s more manageable to generate data at the lower levels and share that to provinces, regional and let those at the national level regulate or assess whether local govt data is accurate.

Albert: The SRTC under NEDA has that mandate to give statistical trainings but the manpower is small, we have 25 personnel. Everybody wants training but 25 people can’t really address the entire needs of the government. They have their own programs but the question here is different levels. Analyze the info that’s out there. You can visit their website.

Legal framework

Albert: Maybe you’re not aware that there is currently no Statistical Act in the country. We’d like to find out if you feel that this is one of the issues. NSO was created during Commonwealth time; NSCB and SRTC during the Cory administration; BAS and BLES have their own specific legal mandates but overall, we can’t really say that there’s a statistical act. What do you think the components are required if the committee decides that an autonomous statistics commission will be created. We have a decentralized set up

7 under various agencies. We’d like to know if you’d like a centralized or decentralized system. How do you think this would affect your agencies?

DTI: Kasi may mga kanya-kanyang charter. The confidentially clause of each charter is becoming an issue. Sasabihin sa inyo, di namin pwede share sa inyo ang data kasi my confidentiality so if you want to come up with a project that would integrate the databases of different government agencies, yon ang lagi ang nireraise.

Alberrt: Confidentiality is a matter of law also. You’re probably thinking of having your own business registry and census of establishments and perhaps NSO is the one saying they can’t release. Am I right?

DTI: NSO is one of them, SSS also. May issue dati when we were talking about the national ID system, mga ganon, if you want to improve efficiency sa government so yun data sharing, parang di ka makakatap dun sa ano, hanggang public info lang ang pwede like name, address pero yun iba pa info na kailangan, di na pwede link sa database mo kasi meron daw sila sariling charter.

Valdepeñas: Clarification. Yung confidentially clause refers generally to disclosure of proprietary info. But if you aggregate the info, it’s not covered. Kung idisclose mo information ni Pedro, that is against the law but if you sum up 1000 individuals, that’s permissible. Sa Netherlands, all statistics gathered by Netherlands are gathered by the bureau of statistics, rated highest among the statistical systems in the world. All statistics gathered by Netherlands are gathered by the Bureau except balance of payments but lahat, population, criminality, health, etc all those are collected by the central bureau of stats. What we have here is a different model. You have 6 major statistical bodies of the govt and that is another model. Yun pala model na President Aquino in effect blessed with authority of the govt about 20 yrs ago so that’s another legal framework. On integratation under one sys, there’s a model that is working very well in Netherlands.

Albert: What we’d like to solicit information is, if you have several agencies to work with, wld it be better if you only have one? Or is that another problem?

DTI: If we have just one body, it shd be somehow a strong statistical body that wld parang mahahighlight ang appreciaton sa data. Siguro baka dun magkaroon ng say na makarequest ng more resources kasi isa na lang e. If you’re thinking of a commission, mas may dating kaysa office.

Valdepeñas: Yung structure sa Netherlands, the budgetary request is articulated in the parliament by the Minister for Econ Affairs but the Dir. Gen of that prepares all the costings for the next 12 months. I understand they are always approved. Almost automatic. In their structure, merong brain thrust consisting of PhDs sa math, statistics, all they do is prepare the methodologies. We have the ingredients in SRTC except that there are no people to do all this. They do very good surveys every year. That’s one model to look at if our present fragmented system that we have here is not working. But

8 that will have a lot of doing because you have to get a legislator to sponsor the idea and get it through Congress.

LMP: It’s very difficult to deal with 6 statistical bodies to get statistics but coming from LGUs, you’d want decentralization to empower local govts. But we also see the need to have a national authority on statistics that will provide national policy framework for the collection of data. But we want it to be decentralized so that LGUs can generate their own statistics because you’d only strengthen local democracy if you give us power to do the things that are being used to be done by the national government. But there shd be a concomitant decentralization also of resources. We have a Phil Tourism Authority and each local govt has their own tourism office. Can there be LGUs that have their own stat office? Let’s find ways on how to share data on how to do these things. I see the need to have an authority to handle statistical matters but the global trend is local govts are being empowered. Local govt are asserting more power. Maybe we can be sensitive to this trend. We can work on that.

Albert: You still want a kind of body or a commission but at the same time, a body that has supervisory function on data collection of LGUs.

ULAP: On creating a centralized statistical commission, it’s good but what wld happen to NSO or NSCB? Are we creating a new agency and retain the two or revising the mandate of NSO? On the issue of LGUs generating their own statistics, I think even in the provinces, in the non-IRA revenues of LGUs, the provinces have the least taxing power of LGUs. So this would be a matter of best practice only pero not a regular function of LGUs. Maybe the PPDO would assign a staff to collect stat from different agencies but to let him gather data and analyze that wld be very taxing for the LGUs. But I’m interested in the Iligan practice.

Albert: Maybe you can sponsor a training.

Habito: Still on LGUs, I don’t’ see any problem with the provincial level not collecting data; municipalities and cities are empowered to collect data according to the standards set by the national authority. The provincial level has a role in the compilation in the municipality-generated data. It has to be some kind of layers of quality control. It will have to be the lower levels of LGUs like municipalities and cities that will do the actual collection. I believe in the need for this, in the work I did for UNICEF, we found out that in some municipalities and cities, they have far better capability on more accurate info on human devt indicators. In CDO, their municipal health worker knew all the families like the back of her hand. The LGUs are closest to the problem and they know more their areas kailangan ma-tap yun subject to standards so that the aggregation of the data at the provincial and national level will be valid.

Lina: We also want to inform that not only is NSCB present in Iligan, but also in Cotabato City, etc. and there are municipalities where they have stat coordination councils.

9 Valdepeñas: I asked the council in Iligan and what led them to do this. Sabi nila, we want to develop a program for underweight children and we don’t have data so we have to collect data here with the assistance from the professors in MSU-IIT. They’re blessed with these technically prepared faculty in IIT. We have SUCs all over the Phils. siguro that’s where you’ll start. Maybe SRTC shd form a partnership with them.

Albert: SRTC already developed linkages with other institutions all over the country. SRTS recognized that there are growing needs for LGUs.

David: I just want to find out how we may resolve some oppossing views. On the one hand, if you have a statistics authority, that structure shd go down to lower levels up to municipality. On the other hand, municipalities may not be willing to spend or appoint statisticians under their own budgets. How do you resolve that? You have a stat authority but no statistician at the local level? Lina said that some municipalities now have local statistical coordinating councils. But if these municipalities have no stat activities, what are they coordinating? Baka in name lang yun? If there’s data collecting going on pero no statistical activities, you may have a planning office going on. Let’s not confuse planning with statistical data collection. Magkaiba yun. Unless may statistics officer there, wala mangyayari. If the idea is, within the local planning office, you have a stat clerk, walang papasok na competent dun kasi clerk lang e. How do we resolve this?

ULAP: The LGUs are autonomous. Kami sa mga liga, we’re only persuasive lang. We can’t impose on LGUs. Unless there’s a law which wld compel LGUs to come up with their own statistical office, you can’t compel them. The rich LGUs will be willing, but what about the rest? Less than a 3rd of the number of municipalities and cities can afford it. So without the necessary legal framework to compel them, I doubt if they will . . .

LMP: One of the functions of the MDC and LMP is to take stock of the capabilities of our member municipalities. We’ve identified 2 LGUs today that are doing and we want this maybe to be replicated in other LGUs. I will reach out to the municipalities and how they did it and how can it be shared to other municipalities. That’s the reason why we created the MDC. We’ve seen a lot of 6th class municipalities turn into 3rd and even 1st class thru best practices and innovative practices. If a mayor will talk about statistical system in their municipality, other mayors will listen.

Albert: The concern of Dr. David is, while we appreciate best practices, persuading people rather than, what assurance do we have that when mayors toe the line when the statistical people they appoint will still be there? We’ll have to have structures that will ensure. . . If this person is under planning, there might be a tendency of maybe creating data for the sake of certain objectives. We want to be assured that certain standards are met that will transcend politics. We are concerned with the way our country is moving and so whatever the commission comes up with, will be really be helpful for the needs of the systems itself and also for the LGUs and other stakeholders.

Castro: One of the questions we asked in CDO and Iligan, how come, they created the city council in 1993, but the sustainability has been there. The city planning and devt

10 officer, he has a high appreciaton of statistics, that’s important. On the question of what activities? For 2006, the development info training, the research of city information and technology, Phil. Stat quiz, training on project proposal writing, etc. They’re very active in the Mindanao Business Council, they also participate in CBMS.

Valdepeñas: The best way to appreciate what Iligan is doing is go there yourself. It’s a daily preoccupation with them. They have targets for city projects. So the mayor asks them, are we getting to the target? So they really work on this information. It just happens that it’s under the city planning office but they have sound advice from the IIT graduate program some of whom graduated from UP. Dr. Bersales had former students there. What does this show? If you look and try hard enough, even the standards of statistical gathering can be improved at that level.

DTI: Ang lumalabas, very important ang pagdocument ng best practices. Kasi even if you have a national statistical authority, hindi pwede magmandate sa LGUs kasi autonomous ang sila. We can’t also mandate the LGUs but we can advocate. Sometimes, there’s a need to tap resources of devt partners to do advocacy. We’ve started that with the business procedures in the Visayas and I hope parang ganon na rin maybe we can follow the same procedure in trying to replicate.

Albert: The point of Dr. David is making sure that you have somebody there. Even the Population Institution before, when they a had a program, they keep training and retraining kasi these people are attached to the mayors. When the mayors leave, these people leave. You shd have people that are not attached to politics, who will be there permanently, they have independence, competence, etc. Every LGU has its own civil registrar. Something like that. Career positions dapat. Will that be a position? The plantilla might be from the commission itself pero you assign him or her to the LGUs. There are a lot of good practices but not all of them will be copied. The system has not provided the standards to have everyone do everything the same way.

BSP: If we have this autonomous body, can we scale it down to the municipal level parang municipal heath officer. Pero dapat my law. From the statistical commission, meron ka sa provincial level, meron ka sa municipal level who will take charge of all stats to be gathered from the municipalities.

Albert: Would that be a way of ensuring that this will work?

Valdepeñas: In that idea, the problem is whether you have the statistical manpower to go around because how many municipalities and cities do you have? Kahit na my RA legislated by Congress, do we have the manpower who can really do these cascading? That’s the, very few universities are offering professional training in the Phils, - UP, DLSU, ADMU, no more. And then you have many SUCs all over the country. Their graduates you can count, 2, 3 5. We have to keep that in mind when we propose this to the congress, they will ask who will man these positions? Do we have the manpower? Have we invested enough to have this human resource? You can’t just make a transition like that and hope to God that it will happen. Kahit na you have the rigorous standards

11 kung wala kang tao to go down to the grassroots level, wala mangyayari. Maybe you can start, what will happen to NSO an NSCB? They will be reorganized. If there will be new legislative initiative, these two will be reorganized.

Management of Information

Albert: What are your views on current practices, data access that you have. Can you provide issues on data access?

DTI: A lot of data can be gathered from websites pero there are certain needs like disaggregated data, you can’t get from the website so you have to request and sometimes, there’s a cost, you have to pay.

Albert: Is accessing website easy?

DTI: Easy, common indicators ok lang but sometimes you have to use a more disaggregated level of data. Minsan mahirap talaga municipalities and provincial data kasi most of the time, regional data lang. Ang hirap kumuha ng breakdown to municipal level. Even us, in trade stats, we have disaggregated data in priority sectors, we have subscription sa NSO, we pay them, my further processing.

Albret: But the problem is, the surveys kasi are meant to generate high-level info so if you want to go down you need a bigger sample size so may budgetary problems dun. So you find the info available in the Internet easy to process?

DTI: Yes, common indicators madali access.

Statistical outputs vs. user needs

David: I have queries. Sometimes, you have to pay for info, how frequent is that? If you ask from NSO, do they charge and if so, how frequently, how much, what kind of info ang free o my charge? We have to address this because when we talk about data access, the poor student who has no funds or a private citizen who has no funds mahihirapan, whereas government meron. Parang you just put money from one pocket to another.

DTI: Sa trade stat namin, my monthly subscription kami pero d ko alam kung magkano.

David: There are reasons why in some cases you’re not able to get the data kasi hindi available. Pero I read in some of the reports of the regional FGDs, kasi one reason, minsan, kahit may data, walang authority to release ang regions kailangan pa ng national level authority. Is that true? Have you had any occasion na you go to the provincial statistical office or provincial BAS and merong data pero kailangan pa ng authorization ng central office?

Lizarondo: In the olden days, ganoon ang orientation but it’s been years already when we have told our officers in the operations centers that they can give out the data, they just

12 have to qualify it na preliminary ang data. I think following that directive, it has something to do with the level of confidence of the people in regional offices so if the particular staff attending the users, that is an easy way out for him. Sir, I can’t give this to you becaise I have to ask for clearance. But they give out prices, they give it over the radio so depende sa tao, kulang kompyansa sa sarili nya so magpapaclear pa ako. Pero they are allowed to give researchers there.

Albert: As far as other agencies are concerned?

Rivera: Share ko yun experience sa NSO regarding the labor force survey, what happens is nagcocolect ng data up to provincial level but they are not allowed to release kasi ang estimation manggagaling sa central office. They can only release the data pero head office ang nagrerelease. In most cases, nauuna pa ang DOLE makakuha kasi kami ang may access sa official release.

BSP: This boils down to integrity of data kasi in the case of data on production index, volume and value as against data on national accounts, hindi sila pareho ng trend and there is problem now, we don’t know as far as NSO and NSCB, wala pang nangyayari, it’s already been a year that we have pointed out the differences in these figures pero wala pa rin output. That’s still under the PSS, di ba?

Castro: There’s a group working on that, and nagkaron ng workshop na nandon ang heads of both agencies, si Dr. Virola so work is ongoing.

BSP: But that was April, it’s already December wala pa rin. Kasi they were asking for financial support from BSP and we already funded the workshop but after the workshop, nothing happened. We’re still waiting for what they are doing to reconcile these two data.

Castro: I think my action plan dun at my timetable but I don’t have the exact documents right now.

Albert: Siguro ang i-establish is yung communication.

BSP: The monetary board is already asking kung ano na nangyari.

David: Siguro this is related to my earlier query tungkol sa task forces, na siguro baka ang mga committees are not really there to solve the problem but to discuss the problem and to propose solutions but not to solve. Ano ba ang TOR ng task force? To discuss the issues?

Valdepeñas: Since we funded that effort, we want to get results. (Laughter)

Albert: I guess since the persons involved are not here, we should move on. Are there other issues? We have not heard from the others. How do you think the system has been meeting your needs? Do you give feedback? We’ve heard from Ludy that they’re still awaiting action. How would you assess/rate the system?

13 David: Ciel has been writing about the national accounts data. I think there has been a series of studies on the quality of national accounts. Medalla and others so I wonder if there is feedback from above. What the compilers are doing to address the issues raised by the studies by Medalla and others.

Castro: Much as been written about that, aside from Prof. Medalla, Prof. Monsod also has written about that. DG Neri then made some, if only for the record, he issued these particular statements which are in our website in answer to those issues.

Albert: How would you really assess the system in general? What are your specific mechanisms for providing feedback? Do you get responses? Maybe we should go on to the next topic.

Best practices

Albert: You’re aware of what’s happening in other countries and this was mentioned earlier. Relative to countries of similar size and level of development, how would you rate the PSS in the scale of 1-10? Can you help us cite specific ways of improving the system?

BSP: In terms of statistical activities and outputs, the Phils., compared with other Asian countries, mga 8. Ang iba natin statistics, una tayo. Yun iba, although we have the same set of statistics, mas complete ang sa atin so as far as PSS is doing, 8.

Albert: What are the specific areas that need improvement?

BSP: As far as I know, mga statistics data ng prices, comparable with other countries pati yung macroprudential indicators. Kasi all of these are submitted to the IMF, ADB, etc. Meron tayong release calendar at nakakasunod naman tayo.

Castro: To have a sound basis for best practices, we are a subscriber of the IMF’s special data dissemination standards. Nandun yung set of indicators which are supposed to be submitted by the Phils. Hindi lang yan pinoproduce ng NSCB, BSP, NSO, so many others. So dun makikita ang performance ng Phils, nasa website namin yun e. The IMF calls us up kung my delays and we have to tell them the reason for these delays and based on their assessment, good ang rating ng Phils.

BSP: We have this advance release calendar, all the statistical agencies, if they can’t meet the deadline, naglalagay na sila sa website that the output will be scheduled on such date. We really can cope with the demands ofIMF and other agencies.

Albert: Maybe we could ask one sentence from each participant: what are the things that you’d like to highlight in the committee’s evaluation of the system? A suggestion or comment about the system.

14 DTI (Nicolas): The committee should work together to harmonize the data. Kasi the DTI collects data from the top 1000 firms and then the survey was transferred to NSO. It’s because the DTI is not a collecting body and para daw na duduplicate ang functions. So kailangan lang masustain ang pagcollect ng data and siguro dedication din sa mga agencies na nacocolect ng data.

DTI (Yaptinchay): It could take time to have some organizational and institutional changes. For now, more financial and human resources to do statistical activities.

DTI (Victoria): Sa integration of info, kung integrated, parang my one stop shop or body, even the budgetary constraint madaling maririnig kasi this is the body na pinakikinggan ng ano. If you propose a project to this body, maeexplain mo kung bakit. And what the information is needed all over the country na dapat nandun. Madaling makukuha ng tao na ordinary citizens. Sa akin, integration is an advantage that I can see so maybe sa disadvanyages, limitations ng data ng bawat agency kasi sinasabi nga natin, merong mga limited data na di pwede ibigay.

ULAP: We hope that something good will come out of this assessment. We’re supportive of this initiative. It’s just that pinoprotektahan ko lang, we don’t want to get the ire of leagues na hindi makastatistics. We only advocate for certain things to be practiced at the LGU level. We’re interested to look at the Iligan experience and bring it to the attention of the ULAP board. So sana matuloy ang pinaplano, if it’s really for the good of the statistical sys. For the meantime, sana something will be done to the www.gov.ph. Kasi oftentimes may kailangan kaming data, mabagal o hindi gumagana.

BSP: I go for the autonomous statistical commission. First, data will be harmonized. Di magkakaron ng duplication na di alam sa investment kung anong data ang gagamitin whether from trade, SEC or BSP. Second, there will be one body to work on the budgetary resources. So siguro magkakaron ng body to represent the statistical community para hindi masabi na di natuloy ang project kasi walang budget. Third, we’ll have professional statisticians in the commission. Kahit pa sabihing nasa grassroots, pwede nasa baba na not really statisticians, pero through training, matututo sila. Last, since it’s autonomous, it won’t be influenced by politicians. Kasi sabi nila ang GNP kaya mataas, kaya si GMA ang nag-announce, or CPI, mga ganon. It won’t be influenced by politics.

LPP: There’s a realization that there’s a need for statistics at the LGU level for their particular needs. There’s also a lack thereof of local chiefs. The recognition is LGUs need data to better assess what they need for policy making and programs. With respect to giving the LGU part of the burden to do this, it’s important to note that they’re capable and prepared and funds shd be given to them. At present, the funds that they have are not enough for the current responsibilities that they have. If we want LGUs to gather and collect statistics that they need to be aggregated at the local, they shd be given the funds to do that.

Albert: Thank you very much. The committee will move on to its regular meeting. Ended 11:41 a.m.

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