Western Visayas stats website relaunches Oct. 29 amid data gaps

ILOILO CITY — Gathering statistical data from line agencies and local government units (LGUs) across Western Visayas is admittedly a tough challenge for the Regional Statistics Committee (RSC), which will relaunch its website this October in time for National Statistics Month (NSM).

Jenelyn Hisuan, statistical specialist II of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Western Visayas, said the website relaunch is among the highlights of the regional NSM celebration, which closes on Oct. 29.

The PSA is the government’s central statistical agency, while the RSC coordinates statistical work among agencies in the region.

The redeveloped website is a reworked version of the old site and continues to feature key statistical data collated from regional offices of national government agencies and LGUs.

Daily Guardian verified that the current RSC website is still online, but the latest data and other materials posted on it date back to 2024.

Hisuan said the relaunched website aims to be a “one-stop shop” for the public to get all the numerical data they need.

“The concept of the [RSC-6] website is to be [a] one-stop portal of statistics. […] The PSA website is focused on PSA products and services. But for the RSC website, it involves statistics of other agencies or generated by other agencies, including the LGUs also,” Hisuan said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Hisuan, however, described the website as “developmental,” meaning it may not contain up-to-date data.

She said the RSC’s main challenge is the variation in agency protocols, with some agencies opting to publish on social media platforms instead of their own websites.

“The different agencies have different protocols. Some agencies don’t have websites because their operations are centralized. That’s one of our issues. Some don’t have websites but have Facebook pages, so [data] would be scattered because the ultimate purpose is for a statistical website for the RSC,” she said.

“[The RSC-6 website] is a developmental [website]. We don’t force the [agencies] because they have their own mandates. We do our best to encourage them,” she added.

Hisuan said the challenge stems not only from policy differences but also from the workload that publishing data may impose on agencies.

“The problem is also on who may handle [the statistical data]. It may be an additional workload for the [agencies],” she said.

“But as we said, [we encourage] best effort for agencies to have a statistical page because it will really help our public especially our media [and] researchers to have just one website to go to in relation to regional statistics,” she added.

Tourism statistics

The NSM theme, “Tuklas Pilipinas: Statistics as Beacon Towards Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable Tourism,” centers on tourism, yet the PSA-Western Visayas has yet to publish the Regional Tourism Satellite Accounts (RTSA).

The RTSA is a report of visitor expenditure across several categories: accommodation, food and beverage serving, transport, travel agencies and other reservation, entertainment and recreation, country-specific tourism characteristic services, and country-specific tourism characteristic goods.

Hisuan clarified that the PSA-Western Visayas is still in the validation stage for the Western Visayas RTSA, which draws on data submitted by the Department of Tourism (DOT), private establishments, and LGUs.

“We still have to validate. We have to ensure that the data gaps [are addressed] because we are [only] on estimation, so we have to ensure that all of the data is covered, not only [from] the DOT. The DOT is not our only source for the RTSA, but we also get from [the] private [sector] […] and LGUs,” she said.

Arecio Casing Jr., regional director of DEPDev Western Visayas and RSC chairperson, said the challenge for tourism data also lies in consolidation. DEPDev succeeded the National Economic and Development Authority as the government’s planning agency.

“The first point of contact for tourism data is the establishments, the airports, [and] the other agencies, so that is where the first count is being done, and it’s the [LGUs] who collect these. Once these are collated, these are submitted to the DOT, and eventually, the PSA,” Casing explained.

Casing, a former LGU official, stressed the importance of accurate and timely statistical data in formulating policy.

He said services account for about two-thirds of the regional economy, making tourism data important in assessing growth.

“It comprises around two-thirds of our economy at 66 percent, so this is a major chunk. This is our strength and also perhaps a liability we’ve seen during the pandemic,” the director said.

Tourism was among the sectors hit hardest by pandemic restrictions.

He said the RSC has continued to encourage agencies, including those with centralized data systems, to collect, monitor, and share statistics.

“We continue to advocate that these agencies, all of our agencies, should continue to gather, collect, monitor and use this data because it is not only for us, but the agency itself has to use this valuable source of information,” he said.