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SLIDESHOW: The hazards of counting every Filipino


She's a different kind of streetwalker. On a Tuesday morning, 32-year-old Richelle Lolong hit the streets of Novaliches in Quezon City to interview households for the National Statistics Office's (NSO) population census. "We already interviewed those," she said as she points to a row of gated houses. She and the three colleagues accompanying her are part of an army of 67,000 census enumerators or interviewers who were deployed by the government to conduct interviews for the national census. Lolong said the best thing about her job is meeting different types of personalities. She said people are generally nice to her, and some even go out of their way to accommodate her in their homes. "Some will offer to feed you or give you something to drink. Once I was in a depressed area and the interviewee went out to get me soft drinks. It was overwhelming that they would do that when you can see that they don't have much," she recounted. But she's encountered also more than one house helper who either slammed the door on her, thinking she was part of an akyat-bahay gang, or shouted "No one's here!" from inside the house. "Once I even had to ask the help of a barangay captain because a house owner really wouldn't let me interview her. When the owner finally agreed and the barangay captain left, she shouted at me for bringing officials to her house. 'Para namang napakasama kong tao!' the interviewee told me, but I just laughed and kept my cool," she said.

After a long day of census-taking, Richelle Lolong (right) and her colleagues take a much-deserved break. Hub Pacheco
This year, NSO is conducting an integrated census of population and housing in the Philippines. The nationwide effort, which happens every ten years and usually falls on a year ending in zero, aims to collect comprehensive information for an up-to-date report on the country's population. NSO National Capital Region Director Lourdes Homecillo said the public should realize that their cooperation is crucial to the effort's success. She said that some households, particularly the high income group, refuse to participate because they do not see how the census will benefit them. "If it's privacy they're worried about, we can assure them that the individual information they provide will not be used by any other government office," she said. "It seems they give low priority to government projects [because] they are not aware of what the government can do for them, so they refuse to cooperate." The information gathered from census-taking serves as the government's basis for policy making and allocation of funds and resources. The population count will provide important information to policy makers and will determine the government's steps and plans for the coming years. "It will determine how much rice and corn to produce, how many school buildings to construct, and how many jobs to provide," Homecillo said. "How will [policy makers] make programs and policies if they do not know the population count of their constituents?" The door-to-door interviews, which started on May 17, 2010, missed its June 11 deadline and is in its last few days. Homecillo said the statistics office is working double time to meet its other important deadline: by the end of the year, NSO will have to submit a report to President Noynoy Aquino for the official declaration of population count. Batas Pambansa 72 requires public school teachers to participate in NSO's census activities. Over 23,000 teachers rendered their services, but the number is still not enough to complete the interviews within the 25-day period that the NSO initially pegged. An additional group of contractual employees were hired by NSO to help finish the census-taking. Hired census enumerators receive P332 a day for their services, plus an additional P130 for travel expenses. But Lolong said she prefers to walk. "It saves money, and it's a good form of exercise," she said with a laugh. Despite the long walks and occasional rude interviewees, Lolong said there's nothing like seeing the fruits of their labor - the final report of population count at the end of census-taking. "It feels great to see that all your hard work paid off," she said in Filipino. "The questions seem simple, but the results will be a big help for the government. Seeing the results, I know I've done my part to help the country." - HS, GMANews.TV
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