Mandaue residents urged to cooperate with data field workers visiting homes  — City planning chief

The first batch of data field workers hired for the implementation of the 2023 Community-Based Monitoring System, undergo five-day training at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex on Monday, August 6.| Photo courtesy of Atty. Lizer Malate via Mary Rose Sagarino

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Residents of Mandaue City are asked to be patient and to cooperate with field workers visiting their homes to gather data for the city’s community-based monitoring system (CBMS).

Architect Marlo Ocleasa, City Planning and Development Office head, said that there would be data field workers, who would visit each household and would ask about 800 different questions such as income, employment, education, and issues in the community among others.

Ocleasa said that the interview might take about 40 minutes. 

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Mandaue residents told: This is important

He asked residents to cooperate saying that it would be important because the data gathered would be used for improving the government’s services.

The CBMS will start to be implemented on Tuesday, August 8, and will end after three months.

CBMS is an organized technology-based system of collecting and validating data to be used by local governments, national government agencies, and non-governmental organizations for planning, budgeting, and implementing local development. It is conducted every three years.

It is being conducted in partnership with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and a third party that handles the employment of data fieldworkers.

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CBMS every three years

“Kani gibuhat, naa man tay CBMS law that all LGUs should come up with this project. Every three years ni gi-conduct si CBMS aron makita nato nagka-improve ba o naa bay issues nga wala na-address, this would also help our leaders, sila Mayor and councilors, kung unsa ang i-formulate nga policies para ma-address ang issues and makahelp sa community,” said Architect Marlo Ocleasa.

(This is done because we have this CBMS law that all LGUs should come up with this project. Every three years the CBMS is conducted so that we ca see if there are improvements o there are issues that have not been addressed, this would also help our leaders, Mayor and the councilors, on what policies they can formulate to address the issues and help the community.)

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RA No. 11315

The Republic Act No. 11315 or the CBMS law was signed in April 2019 by then president Rodrigo Roa Duterte. The law aims to generate updated disaggregated data necessary in targeting beneficiaries, conducting more comprehensive poverty analysis and needs prioritization, designing appropriate policies and interventions and monitoring impact over time.

As for the first batch of field workers, they have already undergone the five-day training which ended today, August 7.

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400 personnel for project

The city’s third party assigned for the employment of enumerators will hire about 400 personnel. Mandaue has allocated a budget of P28 million for the implementation of the program.

“Supposedly ang PSA man mu-kuan (conduct) ani, but since kulang ang budget, limited ang gi-identify ni PSA sa mga LGUS. For Mandaue, gusto ta nga mo-comply sa balaod and at the same time, na-update ang data,” said Ocleasa.

(Supposedly, the PSA should do this, but since they lack the budget, the PSA only limited the identified LGUs. For Mandaue, we want to comply with the law and at the same time, our data is updated.)