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Statistically Speaking
The Manny Pacquiao of Statistics! 
by Dr. Romulo A. Virola 1
Secretary General, NSCB
Despite the valiant efforts of our athletes to win honors for our country, our performance at the 15th Asian Games in Doha has not been inspiring. With 5 days left, thanks to our taekwondo jins, billiard cue artists and boxers, we have garnered 3 silver and 2 bronze medals, still a far cry from our three gold, seven silver and 16 bronze medal tally in Busan four years ago! How we miss Lydia “Diay” de Vega!
Is this another case of our neighbors progressing faster than us? Time for genuine reflection! We have lost just much too much of our competitive edge! Maybe time to make politics a heinous crime?
But never to lose hope!
Last December 05, 2006, the 15th Philippine Statistics Quiz (PSQ) was held at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas with 17 regional champions vying for honors, trophies and prizes, both cash and in kind. The performance of the contestants was impressive and as a statistician aged less than 2 standard deviations away from the mean, I can declare with 100 (1-a)% confidence that the future of the Philippine Statistical System (PSS) is safe! By the way, did you know that the average age of Pinoy males was younger than that of the Pinay2? So you prospective mothers-in-law out there, if your favorite son gets you a daughter-in-law who has been to Dra. Belo more times than you have, don’t make sungit!
The PSQ is held every year under the leadership of the National Statistics Office and the Philippine Statistical Association with the solid support of the statistical community and friends of statistics from the private sector. The event last Tuesday was well-handled and efficiently organized - congratulations to the enthusiastic staff of the NSO and the PSA! The PSQ aims to assess the skills of students in statistics acquired from the secondary education curriculum. More importantly, it seeks to enhance public awareness and appreciation of the importance of statistics to society.
It pains us to note that well into the Third Millennium, many of us still do not appreciate let alone use statistics. We complain a lot about the “inadequacy” and even the “unreliability” of official statistics! But what have we done ourselves so that we will benefit from the “adequate” and “reliable” official statistics we demand? Other than yak, of course! We have not mustered enough political will to provide financial and manpower resources to the statistical agencies! We, in the private sector and horrifically , even a number of statistically-impaired agencies in government, do not fully cooperate with the data collection activities of the statistical agencies!
And anyone who wonders why those poll surveys are able to release timely, reliable and many times tabloid-juicy results does not know his/her statistics! Surely, poll surveys are useful, especially to politicians who need to know and listen to the sentiments and emotional pulse of the voters! Surely, legitimate poll surveys are reliable! But these types of surveys pander to questions better left for the private sector; we, official statisticians should focus on surveys the private sector will not and cannot do! Despite the lack of resources, there remain many areas in the Philippine Statistical System that can be addressed and improved upon! We just have to work; we just must not lose hope! We have many friends of good statistics – Mareng Winnie, Cong. Joey S. Salceda and without meaning to make sipsip, my boss, Sec. Romy L. Neri, among others, who inspire and constantly challenge us to do better! We are motivated by the work and the professionalism of the pillars of the Philippine Statistical System – the late Dr. Tito A. Mijares, Dr. Cristina P. Parel and Dr. Mercedes B. Concepcion! And now we have the PSQ contestants to depend on in the future!
The winner of the inaugural PSQ in 1992 was Jocelyn Que, then a student at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Of the fourteen past national champions3, ten were men and four were women; five were first year students at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, who won in 5 consecutive years from 1994 to 1998; two each came from UP Diliman and Ateneo de Manila in Quezon City; and one each from Saint Louis University in Baguio City, University of San Carlos in Cebu City, Central Visayas State College of Agriculture, Forestry and Technology in Tagbilaran City, AMA Computer Colleges in Baguio City and UP Visayas in Tacloban.
It is unfortunate that just before this year’s PSQ, typhoon Reming devastated some areas in the country which hampered the preparations of some of the participants. For example, according to Prof. Ebenezar P., Barañuelo coach of the Region 5 champion Richard B. Barajas, a BS Chemical Engineering student of Bicol University in Albay, they had previously scheduled intensive review sessions on 1-2 December. Their plans were of course rudely thwarted by Reming and Prof. Barañuelo, who was my student at the UP Statistical Center ( it is now referred to as the UP School of Statistics by the baget statisticians) had to walk three kilometers on roads blocked by boulders from the majestic Mayon volcano just to discuss statistics with Richard.
In the PSQ, three sets of 10 questions each are asked – easy, moderate and difficult. This year, each correct answer in the easy and moderate sets gets one point. All contestants who score at least ten points in the first two rounds move to the third round. Only 4 of the 17 regional champions, 12 of whom were men and 5 were women, failed to reach the final round. Two of the four came within 1 correct answer of making it! Sayang!
At the end of the third round, there was a tie for second and third and a tie for fourth and fifth. All four simultaneously went through tie-breaking questions. After a couple of tie-breaking questions, we, sitting on the Board of Judges began to panic about the long afternoon we could have and immediately issued instructions to the efficient Technical Committee of Dr. Dalisay S. Maligalig to be ready with a million additional questions! Fortunately, we had Dr. Ditas Concepcion with us whose prayers were answered in due time! The ties were broken after 4 questions for fourth and fifth and after 8 questions for second and third.
Fifth place went to Ranyah Dawn R. Dablo, a BS Accountancy student at the University of San Carlos in Cebu, where we get our crispy danggit, representing Region 7 and coached by Rene N. Argenal. Fourth place was won by the NCR representative, Emmanuel Lance Christopher M. Plan VI, a BS Mathematics student at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City and coached by Ramil T. Bataller. The contestant from Region 10, which you must visit to experience the cascading splendor of the Maria Cristina Falls won third place. He is Carlo C. Miñon, a BS Electronics and Communications Engineering student at the Xavier University in Misamis Oriental, coached by Eric Jose S. Rudinas. Second place was Jade T. Ventura, a BS Applied Mathematics student at the University of the Philippines in Mindanao, Davao City, where the durian is as delicious as it can get, representing Region 11 and coached by Li-Ann Lee C. Nalangan. Jade came from behind, having tied only for 4th and 5th after the easy and moderate rounds.
The grand prize winner went to the Dasmariñas East National High School in San Simon, Dasmariñas, Cavite where he learned his statistics in fourth year. He came to know about the PSQ from the De La Salle University in Dasmariñas which encouraged him to join! He is now a BS Accountancy student at the Bataan Polytechnic State College in Bataan. Algebra is his favorite subject and he is the first grand prize winner from Region 3 – the home of the beautiful Barasoain Church and Mt. Pinatubo. He was motivated to join and coached by Benjamin M. Adraneda Jr., his professor in algebra, who has been teaching for the last 16 years – 11 years in high school and 5 years in college. Prof. Adraneda himself is a first time coach in the PSQ so the result of their partnership is truly amazing. The winner correctly answered 9 out of the 10 easy questions, all 10 moderate questions and 8 out of the 10 difficult questions. In fact, with still 1 question to go, he had claimed first. And yet, our national champion has not taken statistics in college; statistics is taught in the first semester of the second year. But he is a wide reader, and that must have helped, according to his coach. Unfortunately, he has no plans to shift to statistics! But he wants to be a heartthrob daw like Piolo Pascual and finds one of his teachers very “nutritious”, whatever that means! Delikado yata itong batang ito ah!
With the glory he has been giving to our country, everybody loves Manny Pacquiao! Especially the politicians! We in statistics have our own Manny Pacquiao and we love him too! Especially if he continues to like statistics! Other than vital statistics, of course!
So, in the 2006 PSQ, Bataan did not fall! Meet therefore, the grand prize winner of the 15th Philippine Statistics Quiz – our Manny Pacquiao – the Region 3 contestant, Alvin Jay P. Perdio!
Merry Christmas to all!
Reactions and views are welcome thru email to the author at ra.virola@nscb.gov.ph.
_______________
1 Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and Chairman of the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC). He holds a Ph. D. in Statistics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, U.S.A. and has taught mathematics and statistics at the University of the Philippines. He is also a past president of the Philippine Statistical Association. He thanks Fe Vida N. Dy-Liacco, Ma. Fe M. Talento, Candido J. Astrologo, Clemente S. Manaog and Edna L. Helmuth for some information provided in the preparation of the article.
2 The median/mean age of the Philippine population for 2005 was 22.2/25.9 years for males, 22.8/26.6 for females and 22.5/26.3 for both sexes. For 2006, the median is 22.4 years for males, 23.1 for females and 22.8 for both sexes.
3 Past winners starting with the 1992 winner are Jocelyn Que, Benedict Chan, Jericho Leo Reyes, Ulysses Diva Jr., Rolando Giancarlo Inciong, Niño Alejandro Manalo, Anna Marseille Gabutero, Daryl Abiog, Rogel Arnel Lusares, Nathaniel Hinay, Sherwin Felix De Leon, Elizabeth Anne Juliana David, Jane Lois De Veyra and Monzenn Carlo Mallari. .
Posted 11 December 2006.
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