PSA-7 files case against man who refused to participate in family income survey

Noel Rafols, PSA-7 information officer, (left) discusses PSA matters during a forum in 2018. | Pia photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority in Central Visayas (PSA-7) is encouraging the public to participate in their different survey activities or they will face charges in court.

This after PSA-7 lodged charges against a man, who refused to participate in their Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) that was conducted last year.

“Ni-refuse ni siya, unya wa gyud siyay reason ba unya duna siyay kuan kuno nga basin mahibaw-an ang ilang kahimtang sa panalapi. Actually kaning amoa, authorized man gyud mi, regularly conducted mani nga mga survey, naa man gyud ni sa balaod sa Republic Act 10625. Naa gyud ni questions, mga pangutana, about mga income kay mao may purpose sa survey,” said Noel Rafols, information officer of PSA-7.

(The man refused to cooperate for no reason at all. He said that he feared that the family’s income would be known. Actually, we are authorized to regularly conduct surveys. That is in the law, Republic Act 10625. There are questions about income, which is the purpose of the survey.)

Despite several follow-ups, Rafols said that the accused continued to refuse to participate in their survey and even challenged their personnel to file appropriate charges against him.

Rafols said that participants in their surveys were randomly selected by their central office. 

Rafols said that because of his continuous refusals, they had filed charges for violation of section 25 of R.A. 10625 or the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013 against the accused in July this year.

On November 13, 2019, Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Branch 3 in Mandaue City issued a warrant of arrest against the accused. The court, however, recommended a bail of P6,000.

CDN Digital is withholding the name and the address of the accused pending his arrest.

 He said that although they had already experienced filing charges against different commercial establishments, who refused to participate in their survey, this is the first time that they had filed a case against a household owner.

 So that others may not share the same fate, Rafols appealed to the public not to turn down surveys conducted by the agency, especially that next year PSA would conduct a census on population and housing throughout the country.

 “Pahinumduman nato ang mga kaigsuonan nga kining mga survey ato ning hatagan ug suporta. Kining suporta nga igo lang gyud mogahin ug gamay nga panahon, pila ka minutos, pagpadayon sa mga enumerators ug pagtubag sa mga survey nga kadtong tubag nga sakto ug tukma kay sa balaod baya kay kung nagtumo-tumo ka, pwede gihapon ka mapasakaan ug kaso,” he added.

(I would just remind the public to support our surveys. The support we need are just for you to give us a few minutes of your time, to accommodate our enumerators and to answer our surveys — answers that are right because in the law those who lie about their answers in the survey could be charged.)  /dbs