The month of October of every year was declared as the National Statistics Month pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 647, series of 1990, signed by then President Corazon C. Aquino. The National Statistics Month celebration, as cited in the premises of the said proclamation, is a step towards promoting, enhancing and instilling nation-wide awareness and appreciation of the importance and value that statistics provide to the different sectors of our society, while at the same time insuring the support of the public at large in improving and enhancing the quality and standard of statistics in the country, giving statistics the official recognition it rightfully deserves as it play a pivotal and crucial role in policy formulation, planning and decision making in both the government and the private sectors.

In pursuant to the above cited proclamation, Northern Mindanao will once again celebrate the National Statistics Month (NSM) on its 22nd year with the theme “Quality Social Protection Statistics for Focused Targeting: Improving Outcomes, Changing Lives”. To highlight the opening of the month-long celebration, the Department of Social Welfare and Development Regional Office 10 (DSWD-10) will spearhead a city-wide motorcade on October 6, to be participated by various Regional Line Agencies, as a precursor to the launching of the National Household targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).

As part of the celebration for 22nd NSM, and to highlight the importance of statistics in regional development, the Regional Statistical Coordination Committee, thru its chair and secretariat agencies, NEDA 10 and NSCB 10, respectively, will formulate the Sectoral Leading Economic Indicators (SLEI) for Northern Mindanao to attain a composite measure of progress in the various sectors of the regional economy. The SLEI is in pursuant to the joint RSCC and RDC Macro Committee resolution passed last September 15, 2011. The SLEI will be formulated as an output to the series of statistical capacity-building trainings to be conducted by NEDA 10 and NSCB 10, with NSO 10 as major sponsor.

The 22nd NSM regional celebration is hosted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development Regional Office 10, with the active participation of the various Regional Line Agencies and Local Government Units (LGUs). The closing ceremonies will be hosted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.