ILOILO – “Statistics is important in our everyday lives as well as in government planning, in policy-making.”
This National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Region 6 director Ro-Ann Bacal stressed as her office and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Western Visayas prepare to kick off the 30th National Statistics Month (NSM) observance today.
“Data is very crucial. Before we plan, we must have the correct information. This is important in coming up with better plans,” stressed Bacal yesterday.
She urged decision-makers and policymakers to analyze data.
“We need to validate information to make informed decisions,” she said.
The 30th NSM celebration starts with a motorcade along the major thoroughfares of Iloilo City, to be followed by the opening of an exhibit at SM City Iloilo.
Apart from poster-making contest and board games, other activities lined up for the celebration are regional statistical quiz, knowledge analysis contest, data board contest and information dissemination, among others.
This year’s celebration theme is “Data Innovation: The Key to a Better Nation.”
Bacal said the theme is meant to recognize “things that are happening in this world in terms of technology and innovation and how this can help us in our data generation and data analysis.”
For her part, Marlene Alviar, officer-in-charge of the PSA in Western Visayas, said there is a need to be innovative in terms of gathering data because of the growing demand for information.
She said they have started to use tablets or computers in their data collection processes.
“Once we collect, we have to process that faster so that NEDA Region 6 can use the data we produce,” said Alviar.
She lamented that “the general public do not really appreciate statistics so we have to be very innovative, especially in the use of information technology.”/PN
