By Danny O. Calleja
LEGAZPI CITY, Feb. 8 (PNA) -– Thousands of enumerators will be fielded by the regional office for Bicol here of the Philippine Statistical Authority-National Statistics Office (PSA-NSO) for the conduct this year of the Census of Population and Housing (CPH).
The NSO said it is now accepting applicants to this job opening for statistical researchers (SRs) who will be deployed in 3,471 barangays within 107 municipalities and seven cities in six provinces to make an official count of the region’s population estimated to reach around six million.
Bicol’s regional population during the latest census conducted in 2010 was officially counted at 5,420,411, which is expected to have increased over the following years until this year by around seven percent based on its annual growth rate of 1.46 percent.
In that census, the provinces of Masbate and Camarines Sur posted population growth rates higher than the 2000-2010 1.46 percent regional average at 1.66 percent and 1.62 percent, respectively, while Albay recorded the lowest growth rate among the Bicol provinces at 1.23 percent.
Population counts in these three provinces were recorded as of May 2010 at 834,650, 1,822,371 and 1,233,432, respectively, with Camarines Sur having the biggest — comprising one-third of Bicol’s total population.
The island province of Catanduanes registered the least number at 246,300 persons.
Among the seven cities of Bicol, this city had the largest population with 182,201, which constitutes 14.8 percent of the total population of Albay.
Naga City ranked second with 174,931 and consisted 9.6 percent of the total population of Camarines Sur.
Sorsogon City had the third largest with 155,144, comprising 20.9 percent of the total population of Sorsogon province and the only Bicol city with a population of less than 100,000 was Masbate–85,227.
An official of PSA-NSO Bicol, who declined to be named having no authority to speak on this matter to the press, over the weekend said around 3,000 SRs will be needed to cover the whole region in the conduct of the CPH.
The recruitment of these personnel started this month and will end in May, after which successful applicants will undergo training in preparation for the actual field works to take off in August.
Apart from enumerators, positions to be filed up by these applicants include office clerks and utility workers for PSA-NSO provincial offices, assistant statisticians, district office clerks and area supervisors.
NSO Regional Director Cynthia Perdiz said the SRs who would qualify as office workers will be hired for six months from July to December while those who would be deployed in the field as enumerators and supervisors will work for a maximum of at least a month from July to August.
All applicants must be holders of any bachelors degree, male or female not more than 35 years old of age, physically fit and preferably with experience in field works, she said.
To be accepted, each applicant should pass the written examination and interviews, and when hired, they will be entitled to salaries equivalent to the daily minimum wage prevailing in the region or between Php280 and Php310 per day plus a fixed amount for travel allowance for the enumerators.
Those interested to apply, Perdiz said, may submit their application letter accompanied with personal data sheets accomplished in their own handwriting, medical certificate, tax identification number, police clearance and school’s transcript of records to the PSA-NSO provincial office nearest to them or to the regional office at the Albay Capitol Annex here.
She explained that this year’s CPH will adopt the procedures, methodologies and instruments used in the pilot census conducted by the PSA in August last year that established a benchmark information which measured the impact of super typhoon “Yolanda” in terms of people and socio-economic and housing characteristics in selected areas.
The pilot census will also serve this year’s CPH as master sample frame for pilot areas where there are no recent list of households based on the 2012 Census of Agriculture and Fisheries (CAF), or where the list cannot be used as a frame due to the impact of typhoon Yolanda, which caused widespread displacement of households.
That census was conducted in selected municipalities and villages in Metro Manila, northern province of Cagayan, central provinces of Cebu, Eastern Samar, Leyte and Samar, and southern province of Davao Oriental.
The actual 2015 CPH will update the population count gathered from the same activity in 2010 which placed the country’s total population as of May 1, 2010 at 92.34 million.
Using the 2010 population projections, the PSA believes the current population could reach over 100 million, making the country the 12th most populous country in the world. (PNA)
As an Enumerator…all I can share is that: being on the field is a very hard risk..this is not an easy job…so many things to consider..needs more patience esp meeting people of different views..we encounter hardness on the field..We wish..that on the next POPCEN…allowances will be release before the Popcen enumeration will start..and hopefully salaries will be given on time..