Statistics office urges firms to participate in surveys

CEBU, Philippines - To avoid legal trouble, establishments were urged to participate in the annual quarterly survey set to start next month.

Officials of the  Philippine Statistics Authority, formerly the National Statistics Office, stressed that they have the power to sue establishments who fail to comply with the survey.

PSA-7 regional information officer Noel Rafols explained that they have filed cases against companies in Cebu which refused to submit to List of Establishments (LE) Survey to update the government on the census of companies and their operational status.

“Last year, naka file ta og two cases but later on ming comply ra pud ang isa. As of now, we have no update on the status of the case but this is a statement nga masangit gyud sila kung dili sila mo comply,” Rafols explained at the weekly Association of Government Information Officers-7 Forum.

Also present during the forum were PSA-7 Regional Director, Engr. Ariel Florendo, and Civil Registry System Outlet Supervisor Hera Juarez.

The LE Survey is a database of all establishments in the Philippines updated Quarterly through Updating of List of Establishments to serve as a reliable sampling frame for business and industry censuses and surveys.

The survey is provided for by Commonwealth Act No. 591 which mandates the then NSO to prepare for and undertake all censuses of population, agriculture, industry and commerce.

Updating is conducted by capturing and listing the characteristics of new establishments, updating of status and characteristics of old and existing establishments, de-listing closed establishments that should no longer be part of the LE, as well as identifying out-of-scope units on the LE database.

Rafols stressed that there is no excuse for establishments not to comply since there is an online form available at the agency’s website www.census.gov.ph.

A 2011 data on the number of establishments nationwide showed that the entire Central Visayas had at least 50,313 establishments.

Florendo also reiterated that the public must now get used to their new name, admitting that it is hard to correct the usual NSO branding to the new PSA which they are now referred to.

This was done through Republic Act No. 10625 otherwise known as the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013, an Act Reorganizing the Philippine Statistical System, Repealing for the Purpose Executive Order Number One Hundred Twenty-One, Entitled “Reorganizing and Strengthening the Philippine Statistical System and for Other Purposes.”

Prior to being called NSO, the office was known as the Bureau of the Census and Statistics.  (FREEMAN)