ILOILO – An estimated 2,349 Barangay Service Point Officers (BSPOs) are holding a congress today at the Iloilo Sports Complex in Magsaysay Village, La Paz, Iloilo City.
The congress’ theme is “BSPO, Malipayon nga Nagaserbisyo Boluntaryo.”
The 2,349 BSPOs are serving 1,721 barangays of the province.
According to Provincial Population Office (PPO) head Ramon Yee, the congress is a venue for BSPOs to exchange views, share best practices and strengthen ties.
BSPOs help implement various programs of the provincial government, and particularly the PPO. They gather demographic data every month such as the population of the barangays, number of births and deaths, number of overseas workers, etc.
BSPOs also help the PPO record the number of out-of-school youths, cases of teen pregnancies and deliveries.
According to Yee, these data are valuable. Local governments can use them to plan and implement programs and projects to address local concerns such as poverty.
BSPOs do these as volunteers not receiving monthly compensation, said Yee, thus it is only fitting that their volunteerism is recognized.
BSPOs only receive honoraria from the barangays where they serve. Each December, the provincial government releases cash allowance to them. This year (next month) each of them are set to receive P4,000 each.
In today’s congress, they would be given materials to aid in their work such as notebooks, pens and staplers./PN
