NEDA backs proposed merger of stats units

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has backed a proposed measure in the House of Representatives to merge the country’s main statistical gathering and compilation agencies.

“This bill puts together the main statistical gathering and compilation agencies into one body that will be called the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA),” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. said in a statement.

NEDA assistant director general Ruperto Majuca said in a phone interview that merging the different statistical agencies would make it easier to craft and implement policies regarding official data.

“At the same time, there would be a one-stop shop for data and that would make it easier for data users to access information,” Majuca added.

Under the bill, the PSA will be an attached agency of NEDA and will be headed by a national statistician with the rank of undersecretary.

Currently, several agencies are gathering different statistics according to their mandates. Among these agencies are the National Statistics Office, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Bureau of Labor Employment and Statistics and the National Statistical Coordination Board.

NEDA said that during the Aug. 16, 2011, meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, Paderanga—who also heads NEDA—presented the salient features of the bill that would repeal Executive Order (EO) 121 signed in 1987.

Paderanga explained that a mere Administrative Order by the President may not suffice in consolidating the current statistical agencies into a single PSA.

“EO 121 was signed by then President Corazon C. Aquino, and at that time, she had lawmaking powers. Thus, the said EO has the power of a law and has to be amended, in order to reorganize the PSA,” Paderanga said.