The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) remains confident that it would still be able to spend the P4.5 billion, which is currently unobligated in their budget for this year.
On Wednesday, National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told the BusinessMirror that the amount is as of June 2021 and represents a 57.6 percent obligation rate of its 2021 budget.
On Tuesday evening during the budget deliberations, Quezon City Rep. Jose Christopher Y. Belmonte chided PSA for the low obligation rate of its 2021 budget. The budget deliberations of the PSA were subsequently deferred at the plenary.
“This indicates that it is possible for PSA to attain a 100 percent obligation rate by December 2021. This unobligated balance includes the payment for mandatory expenses that are due until the end of the year [e.g., salaries, utilities, office rental, etc.],” Mapa explained.
“We will coordinate and wait for further instructions from the House Committee on Appropriations on how to proceed,” he also said regarding the deferment of the PSA budget deliberations.
Mapa explained that the unobligated budget would also include funds for activities/expenses undergoing the procurement process. These include scheduled trainings, seminars and travels that are affected by the pandemic and restrictions.
Further, he said that since June 2021, the PSA has already obligated additional P2.5 billion as of August 31, 2021 for various projects or activities and operations.
Of this P2.5 billion, around P533 million is for the National ID; P5 million for the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS); and P183 million for the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), among others.
He also clarified that out of the unobligated allotment of P4.5 billion, only P1.65 billion or 37 percent is for the implementation of the National ID.
Belmonte also raised concerns regarding the results of the recent Census of Population and Housing (CPH) where the population of some barangays in Quezon City dropped by 50 percent.
Earlier, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said the city’s population increased by just 23,932 or 0.17 percent annually to 2.96 million from 2.94 million over a five-year period.
“The concerned office for the 2020 CPH, along with the PSA National Capital Region Regional Office, will coordinate with the Office of Belmonte to discuss the concerns raised,” Mapa told the BusinessMirror.
During the plenary deliberations, PSA said that despite constraints in undertaking the National ID, they are committed to register 92 million Filipinos in the PhilSys by next year.
Last week, the PSA said local quarantine restrictions have proven to be among the major challenges in implementing the National ID.
PSA Deputy National Statistician of the PhilSys Registry Office Rosalinda P. Bautista said the PSA “lost close to 4,000 foregone registrations” due to local mobility restrictions.
However, Bautista said, the PSA continues its effort to register more Filipinos in the National ID. As of September 10, 42 million, PSA has completed Step 1 for demographic data capture; 30 million, Step 2 for biometric data capture; and over 1.7 million have received their IDs.
The PhilSys registration has also been able to provide poor and unbanked Filipinos the opportunity to open a bank account when they complete their Step 2 registration through LandBank.
As of September 10, Bautista said, over 5 million Filipinos have already opened new LandBank accounts during their National ID Step 2 registration.
By the end of the year, Bautista said the government aims to register 70 million Filipinos under Step 1 and 50 million under Step 2.