The City Government of Davao-City Planning and Development Office (CPDO), in partnership with the Philippine Statistics Office, has urged the public to accommodate enumerators visiting their homes at night and on weekends to finish the Population Census 2024.
PSA Davao del Sur Provincial Statistical Office Officer-In-Charge Mr. Jesse A Madulin said during the I-Speak media forum that they extended the conduct of PopCen 2024 and Community-Based Monitoring System deadline from September 16 to October 31, 2024, to achieve the number of people they need.
“We have reached almost 70 percent, hoping that the 30 percent will be covered in 15 days. We are hoping that everyone will cooperate,” Madulin said.
As of October 16, the census already covered about 403,000, or about 70 percent of the 590,000 estimated needed respondents.
Madulin said that with their strategies, they are hopeful to cover the areas that they were unable to cover in the past due to the unavailability of the working population in their homes during the daytime, the resignation of some enumerators, and the inaccessibility of some subdivisions.
CPDO Designated Statistician Edwin Bacalso, who was also in the same forum, revealed that the enumerators are doing their best to finish the census in Poblacion District where a huge gap of respondents was observed.
“Sa Poblacion, dense ang atong working age, daghan ang nagatrabaho sa area mao gyud to nadugay, since gabii rapud sila manguli. However, this issue is being addressed by PSA kay nagsabot sila sa atoang mga household nga atngan nila sa gabii or during the weekend. Ang atong enumerator extra effort gyud sila during the weekend nga maghatag og serbisyo para ma-enumerate gyud kinsa tong wala nakuha. Ang target sa PSA and target sa City Government of Davao nga maximum gyud ang makuha nato.( In our Poblacion, the working-age population is dense; many are working in this area. This is also among the causes of the delay in the census because these people only go home at night. However, this issue is being addressed by PSA because they have an arrangement where the enumerators will wait for the homeowners at night or visit their houses during the weekends. Our enumerators are making extra effort on weekends to provide service just to enumerate those who have not been captured yet. The PSA and the City Government of Davao are to achieve the maximum number of people),” Bacalso said.
Madulin said that enumerators from Davao Del Sur, Davao De Oro, and Davao del Norte are tapped to help Davao City enumerators finish the census on the target date. With additional enumerators, there are now a total of 1,000 enumerators deployed in Davao City.
Bacalso said that the CPDO had sent letters to homeowners’ associations across Davao City, informing them about the census and urging them to welcome the enumerators for the conduct of the census.
Madulin reminded the public to cooperate with the census as the data gathered from it is important as it can be used for plans and programs for Davao City.
“We are asking the cooperation of the residents of Davao City to cooperate and accept our enumerators when they are visiting the households that is to provide accurate and complete information for Davao City,” he said.
“This endeavor is very important for us to have updated population [data] in the city and also for CBMS for us to have an updated list of the beneficiaries on the social protection programs, especially the poverty alleviating programs for our city as well as the list of inhabitants in the area to immediately identify those who are affected by disasters. We are hoping we can finish this on October 31, 2024,” he added. CIO
