The methodology of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in getting and giving information should be checked before it is given out, Senator Francis Tolentino said.
According to Tolentino, wrong information or erroneous data leads to mistakes in the planning stages by the government on programs and the national budget.
The PSA gives data on population such as the number of the poor, number of those having jobs and the jobless, and the drafting of programs for them.
The data given by PSA are usually accepted but who check whether the PSA commits mistakes, or is there an agency that check or supervise PSA’s methodologies and its data, he asked.
Tolentino made these observations during deliberations of the proposed 2023 P5.2 trillion national budget.
He said that PSA reported the number of jobless went down to 2.5 million last September because many learners enrolled at schools but this does not jibe with the records of the Commission on Higher Education (CHed).
Tolentino pointed out that former Senate President Pro Tempore and now Batangas Congressman Ralph G. Recto questioned PSA’s data on the number of the poor while Quezon city Mayor Joy Belmonte said their data on the rise of population do not match with the PSA data.
Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara, who is defending the national budget as chairman of the Senate finance committee, said that while PSA is not perfect, still corrections or revisions are being made in their report.
Angara advised Tolentino to meet with the PSA and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) on this issue. PSA is under the NEDA.