SORSOGON CITY, Sorsogon (PIA) - The office here of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is appealing for the cooperation of the whole community as the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) takes place in the province from September 1 to 29.

This was the appeal of the Provincial Statistical Chief Elvira Apongol to the public during her visit at the PIA Sorsogon Information Center as guest in the "CENSUS 2020" which was livestreamed on PIA Sorsogon's Facebook page last August 25.

According to Apongol, the census would be different from previous censuses since it will be done during the time of pandemic.

She said that amid the health crisis, the census enumerators would pursue their activities as planned.

Apongol explained that they had already conducted series of meeting with the Barangay heads in the province and their enumerators will be having courtesies with them where they will be deployed as they would start the census activities.

The enumerators, as a matter of compliance with the minimum health standard set by the DOH, would be equipped with health protective accessories such as wearing of masks, face shields and portable hand carried alcohol based sanitizers.

Likewise, Apongol said their enumerators will not necessarily enter the house premises of the households they are going to visit and it would be enough that clear communication process between the enumerators and the household head will be observed.

In times of severe weather disturbance or a fortuitous event occurred at the time of the census, the data gathering process by the enumerators will be suspended and will continue only by the time that their safety is guaranteed upon pronouncement of concerned authorities.

Each enumerator is expected to gather data from a more or less 300 households for a period of 25 days and they will have to stay for an interview for each household head for about 20 minutes.

This year's census does not include the gathering of household income since it has to be conducted in a separate schedule. The PSA Sorsogon pointed out that the main objective of national census of Population and Housing is to gather actual data from every household to be used by the government in addressing the needs of the Filipino nation and achieve the goal of having a comfortable life ahead.

All the data to be gathered shall be treated with full confidentiality according to PSA.(PIA SORSOGON V-MBAtun)