Republic Act No. 10625, also known as the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013, created the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) as the primary statistical agency of the government. Executive Order No. 352 states the designation of statistical activities that will generate critical data for decision-making of the government and the private sector. Batas Pambansa (BP) Bilang 72, provides also the basis for the conduct of the decennial integrated census of population and housing. Pursuant to these laws, the Philippine Statistics Authority undertook the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (CPH). Furthermore, in Section 8 of BP 72, the final population count as determined from the processed census returns shall be considered official for all purposes upon proclamation by the Office of the President. On July 6, 2021 His Excellency President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has signed Proclamation No. 1179 s. 2021 and declared official for all purposes the population count of the Philippines by province, city/municipality, and barangay based on the 2020 CPH.

In line with its mandate, PSA Davao del Sur conducted the Provincial Data Dissemination Forum to present the highlights of the Results of 2020 CPH on August 10, 2021 at 10:00 AM via face-to-face conference and Zoom meeting app hosted by Mr. Rogelio R. Omapas Jr. The face-to-face conference was held at Hotel de Crisbelle in Brgy. San Jose, Digos City, Davao del Sur and it was attended by Davao del Sur delegates which includes, Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators (MPDCs), Municipal Civil Registrars (MCR), Provincial Police Office, DepEd Davao del Sur Division Office, Provincial Heads of PSA Provincial Statistical Offices of Davao Region, Officers and Officials of different Local Government Units and other National Government Agencies. Concurrently, the zoom meeting coverage was participated by Davao City delegates which includes the City Civil Registrar, OIC-SAS of DepEd, friends from the media and some employees of PSA Davao del Sur. Moreover, PSA Davao del Sur also shared a live coverage via Facebook Live. The resource persons of the forum are PSA Regional Director Ruben D. Abaro, Jr., CESE, Supervising Statistical Specialist Ma. Leah C. Magracia, Chief Statistical Specialist Randolph Anthony B. Gales, Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator Imelda P. Rebuyon, EnP, CPDC of Davao City Ivan C. Cortez, EnP represented by Statistician Romeo Lintapan.

The program started with the opening preliminaries followed by the welcome remarks of SS II Celeste Mae L. Barrete. She first acknowledged the presence of the resource persons, and stated in her remarks some facts about the 2020 CPH. She mentioned the highlights of the forum and emphasized the hard work of all the 2020 CPH personnel. Regional Director Ruben D. Abaro Jr., CESE started his message by acknowledging the resource persons at the presidential table. He discussed some facts about the Census of Population and Housing and emphasized the uses and importance of the data generated from the 2020 CPH. Furthermore, he mentioned that the implementation of the 2020 CPH was a big challenge because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, PSA had adjusted its schedule of field operation from May to September taking into consideration the health and safety of the public. Moreover, RD Abaro said that despite the pandemic, the 2020 CPH is a remarkable success. He then expressed his gratitude to everyone who became part of the project. He encouraged the participants to appreciate and to be informed about everything that will be discussed in the forum. he also mentioned that the results are released, presented, and are made available for all. On the other hand, demographic and economic data gathered during the census are still undergoing consistency checking, data processing, and validation. These data will soon be released and will be part in future data dissemination activities of PSA. Lastly, he congratulated everyone for being part of the 2020 CPH endeavor.

Following that, SSS Ma. Leah Magracia presented the background of 2020 CPH. Here, SSS Magracia discussed the Republic Act in which the 2020 CPH is articulated to be undertaken by PSA. She also discussed the Executive Order in which the conduct of statistical activities is stated, and the proclamation of May 2020 as the National Census Month. Additionally, she mentioned the number for personnel hired by the PSA in every process of the 2020 CPH operation, from the enumeration up to the machine processing. Lastly, she stated the Section 8 of Batas Pambansa Bilang 72 which is about the population count being official upon the declaration of the President.

After that, the Results of the 2020 CPH for Davao del Sur and Davao City which is the highlights of the forum was presented by CSS Randolph Anthony B. Gales. CSS Gales started his presentation with the acknowledgement of the principals and then, he proceeded to the discussion of the declaration of the official population count based on the 2020 CPH. Subsequently, he discussed the Total Population of the Philippines, the Annual Growth Rate of the Philippines, the Total Population of Davao Region, the Annual Growth Rate of Davao Region, the Total Population of Davao del Sur, the Annual Growth Rate of Davao del Sur, the Total Population of Davao City, the Annual Growth Rate of Davao City, the Most Populous and Least Populous City/Municipality of Davao del Sur, the Doubling Time of Davao del Sur and Davao City, the Population Density of Davao del Sur and Davao City, the Top 10 Most Populous Barangays and the Top 10 Least Populous Barangays of Davao del Sur, and lastly, the Top 10 Most Populous Barangays and the Top 10 Least Populous Barangays of Davao City.

In his elaboration on the Annual Growth Rates, CSS Gales presented the data as well as the graph which showed the trend whether it is decreasing or increasing upon the comparison of reference periods, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Other than that, CSS Gales defined the terminologies such as Total Population, Household Population, Institutional Population, Population Density, and Doubling Time. Furthermore, he mentioned the differences of Davao del Sur Population and Davao City Population between the reference period May 1, 2020 and August 1, 2015. In this way, the participants had a better understanding of the data presented.

The reactors then gave their respective messages and feedbacks on the preliminary results of the 2020 CPH. Starting with Statistician Romeo Lintapan, who represented Davao City CPDC Ivan C. Cortez wherein he stated the importance of the results of 2020 CPH to the country. He said that it will greatly help the country specifically in community planning and even in economic and social science researches. As partner of the local government the data released by PSA can contribute to the government’s progress. Also, he mentioned that the implementation of the 2020 CPH was costly on the part of the national government and even more difficult with the challenges brought by the pandemic. However, through the commendable diligence of the personnel and all who became part of the project, it became successful. In behalf of the City Government of Davao, he is extremely grateful. For the next reactor, PPDC Imelda P. Rebuyon, EnP, gave her feedback that the Province of Davao del Sur is tremendously happy to have the latest data of the CPH. She mentioned the population count of Davao del Sur and then commented that there is a low increase in the population. She said that the data released by the PSA will be used as bases for their rationalized planning because it gives them a hard time to do the planning because what they have were inconsistent and obsolete data. This being said, she hopes that the PSA could help them in the conduct of their CBMS which can effectively aid them in determining which barangay or area needed government’s intervention. Additionally, she mentioned that she is looking forward for the implementation of Davao del Sur Banking System which will be updated annually. On the other hand, this may not be materialized now because of the budget but the PPDO is asking for the assistance of the PSA in the future. Finally, PPDC Rebuyon expressed her gratitude to PSA.

After all the presentation, there was an open forum facilitated by the host, Mr. Rogelio Omapas Jr.. Here, one of the questions was raised by MPDC Consuelo O. Paramio regarding the indication of the decrease in the population count of Brgy. Poblacion Uno, Bansalan. It was then answered by CSS Gales emphasizing that no overlapping happened because the enumerators brought maps with them and one of the factors that may have caused the decrease of the population is the conversion of some residential areas into commercial areas as what usually happened in other Poblacion areas. As a result, residents from these areas relocate to adjacent barangays or maybe in the outskirts of the municipality. RD Abaro also added that, another factor that could affect it is the movement of the people (migration). He also mentioned that all hired personnel have undergone training on this and aside from that, the Barangay Captains of the said Barangay gave a certification which confirms that the barangay is fully enumerated.

On the latter part of the program, certificates of appreciation were awarded to the reactors CPDC Cortez and PPDC Rebuyon and tokens of appreciation were also awarded to RD Abaro and SSS Magracia. SS II Rachel R. Saguibo in her closing remarks thanked everyone who participated in the event and reiterated that PSA Davao del Sur is hoping for everyone’s continuous support in PSA’s future endeavor. The forum ended having the preliminary results of the 2020 CPH successfully disseminated. With this, PSA Davao del Sur is grateful to be part of the nation’s progress.