MALACAÑANG
Manila

 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 135

PROVIDING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A WELL-COORDINATED
LOCAL LEVEL STATISTICAL SYSTEM

           WHEREAS, the reliability, credibility, and comparability of data have significant bearing on policy and decision-making of the National Government and Local Government Units;

          WHEREAS, the Philippine Statistical System (PSS) as defined in Executive Order No. 121, series of 1987, consists of a policy-making and coordinating body, a statistical research and training center, a general purpose statistical agency, and all departments, bureaus, offices, agencies, and instrumentalities of the national and local governments and all government-owned and controlled corporations and their subsidiaries that are engaged in statistical activities either as their primary function or as part of their administrative and regulatory functions;

           WHEREAS, the coverage of the PSS cuts across all geographic subdivisions in order to ensure the proper determination of the over-all picture of the country;

          WHEREAS, a new Local Government Code was signed into law on October 10, 1991;

          WHEREAS, pursuant to the aforesaid code, powers and functions for the delivery of basic services were devolved to the local government units;

          WHEREAS, inherent in the devolution of basic powers and functions would be the devolution of the generation of statistics for planning and decision-making;

          NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL V. RAMOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby order:

          SECTION 1.     A well-coordinated statistical system at the local level that is: (1) responsive to planning and monitoring requirements at the local level, and (2) capable of producing statistics which can be integrated and harmonized with statistics being produced at the national level, shall be established.

          SEC. 2.          Overall Coordination of Statistical Matters

(a)       The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) shall, by virtue of its mandate under EO 121, remain as the central policy-making and coordinating body on all statistical matters at the national and local levels. All statistical policies formulated by the NSCB shall be implemented by all concerned agencies of the government, including the local government units.

(b)       In each Region, the Regional Statistical Coordination Committee (RSCC), which has been created by the NSCB, shall serve as the link between the NSCB and the local government units on statistical matters. Thus, all statistical activities of the LGUs shall be planned and implemented in coordination with the RSCCs. The NSCB shall establish its Regional Statistical Coordination Units (RSCUs) in all regions to serve as the secretariat of the RSCCs.

(c)       To foster an efficient statistical coordination, the RSCCs are given authority to act on statistical matters that concern only their region, province or city, municipality, and barangay. Statistical matters that are of national concern and/or may affect the other regions shall be elevated by the RSCC to the NSCB Central Office.

(d)      The following statistical coordination mechanisms shall be implemented by the NSCB at the local levels. In areas where there are RSCCs already in place, the NSCB may delegate the implementation of these mechanisms to said committees. As such, all local government units are enjoined to comply.

(1)       Preparation and Review of Statistical Calendar. Starting CY 1993, the provinces and cities shall submit to NSCB through the RSCCs for review and approval a Five-Year Statistical Calendar indicating what statistical activities are to be conducted, the objectives, data to be generated, and the expected time lag. The concerns of the municipalities and barangays shall be coursed through their mother provinces and municipalities, respectively. As one of the inputs in the preparation of the LGU calendars, the NSCB in coordination with major data users and producers, shall determine and provide the LGUs the types of subregional data which are and which could be made available from national statistical activities.

(2)       Statistical Survey Review and Clearance System. For every statistical survey to be conducted by the LGUs, the responsible LGU shall submit, at least 90 days before the start of the scheduled field operations, the survey design and forms/questionnaires to the NSCB through the RSCCs.

The NSCB shall conduct the review of the technical aspects of the statistical survey. As a notice of approval, a clearance number shall be issued. Said number shall be printed by the LGU in the survey questionnaires. Clearance shall be renewed every two years and/or everytime changes or revisions are to be made in the survey design or questionnaire.

(3)       Review of Data Quality. The data generated by the LGUs shall be regularly reviewed by the RSCC in terms of their accuracy, consistency, and timeliness as basis of recommending statistical improvements at the local level.

SEC. 3.          Production of Local-level Statistics

(a)       The National Statistics Office (NSO) shall remain as the general-purpose statistics-producing agency. It shall provide, when feasible and when budget permits, the statistics required for local-level planning at the lowest disaggregation.

(b)       The generation of provincial, city, municipal, and barangay statistics, which are by-products of administrative reporting systems inherent in administering the devolved basic services, shall be continued by the Local Government Units (LGU) consistent with the manner, form, and frequency being adopted by the concerned national line agencies.

(c)       For the generation of other statistics with sub-national disaggregation, the NSCB shall designate which of the statistics are to be generated by the national agencies or by the local government or jointly by the national and local governments.

(d)       If the specific data required by the LGUs could not be made available from existing statistical activities of the national government, the generation of such statistics shall be done by the LGUs in coordination with the RSCCs.

SEC. 4.          Consolidation of Data Produced by LGUs

(a)       To ensure accuracy, consistency, and comparability of statistics among the LGUs, statistical concepts, definitions, techniques, and methodologies shall be formulated by the NSCB, thru the RSCCs, with due recognition of the conditions and needs at the local levels.

(b)       Local data, which can be produced by LGUs to arrive at regional or national figures as may be determined by the NSCB, shall be consolidated by a national agency to be designated by the NSCB and to be incorporated into an official Data Base after being reviewed by the RSCCs. The designated national agency shall participate in the work of the RSCC in reviewing the consistency of statistics at various geographic levels and ensure that such data are included in the manner and disaggregation recommended by the NSCB.

(c)       In the regions, the National Statistical Coordination Board shall designate the agency/body that will maintain the one-stop-shop Data Base. All LGUs can have access to said Data Base. The LGUs are also enjoined to establish their own databases in support of planning and programming activities at the local level.

SEC. 5.          Provision of Technical Assistance

(a)       The NSCB may, upon request of the LGUs and in coordination with the other national line agencies, deputize statistical personnel from its own personnel or of the other agencies to render technical assistance in the statistical operations of the LGUs. The LGUs shall, however, shoulder the payment of statistical service fee to the deputized personnel of the national agencies subject to the existing government rules and regulations.

(b)       On the other hand, the LGUs may also be requested to provide assistance to national government agencies in gathering data of national concern. The national agencies shall likewise provide additional emoluments to the LGUs personnel utilized for their statistical activities, subject to existing rules and regulations of the national government.

(c)        In order to build up the statistical capability of the LGUs, the NSCB, the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC), and the Local Government Academy (LGA) shall prepare and implement a statistical manpower development program for the LGUs.

SEC. 6.          Guidelines on the Issuance of Certification of Population sizes Pursuant to Section 7, 386, 442, 450, 452, and 461 of the New Local Government Code

(a)       The National Statistics Office shall issue certification on data that it has collected and processed as well as on statistics that it has estimated.

(b)       For census years, certification on population size will be based on actual population census counts; while for the intercensal years, the certification will be made on the basis of a set of demographic projections or estimates declared official by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

(c)       Certification of population census counts will be made as of the census reference date, such as May 1, 1990, while those of intercensal population estimates will be as of middle of every year.

(d)       Certification of population size based on projections may specify the range within which the true count is deemed likely to fall. The range will correspond to the official low and high population projections.

(e)       The smallest geographic area for which a certification on population size may be issued will be the barangay for census population counts, and the city or municipality for intercensal estimates. If an LGU wants to conduct its own population census, during off-census years, approval must be sought from the NSCB and the conduct must be under the technical supervision of NSO from planning to data processing.

(f)        Certifications of population size based on published census results shall be issued by the Provincial Census Officers or by the Regional Census Officers. Certifications based on projections or estimates, however, will be issued by the NSO Administrator or his designated certifying officer.

SEC. 7.          Transitory Provisions – The National agencies shall continue to administer the gathering and processing of the necessary local statistics on the basic services devolved to the LGUs, until the end of CY 1992, provided that, the personnel absorbed by the LGUs from these agencies, shall be utilized by the national line agencies in the gathering of raw data. Thereafter, the generation of these statistics shall be made by the LGUs in accordance with Section 2 (b) of these guidelines.

SEC. 8.          In order to achieve the smooth implementation of the foregoing provisions, the NSCB together with the concerned national line agencies, shall conduct the necessary orientation trainings/seminars for the LGUs. The costs of these trainings/seminars shall come from the information campaign funds of the Local Government Academy.

SEC. 9.          The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and the various Regional Statistical Coordination Committee (RSCC) shall see to it that the foregoing provisions are adequately and efficiently carried out.

SEC. 10.         The NSCB shall be authorized to provide for any amendments to these guidelines.

SEC. 11.         If, for any reason, any part or provision of this Executive Order shall be held unconstitutional or invalid, other parts or provision hereof which are not affected thereby shall continue to be in full force and effect.

SEC. 12.         This Executive Order shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 6^th day of November in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and ninety three.

Signed:

FIDEL V. RAMOS
     President

By the President:

TEOFISTO T. GUINGONA, JR.
      Executive Secretary

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