The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said health and safety protocols would be strictly followed when this year’s Census of Population and Housing (CPH) is conducted, noting that households would have a choice on how the data collection process would be done. In a briefing on Thursday, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said data collection would be done through face-to-face interviews, answering self-administered questionnaires, telephone interviews and online methods. “The data collection is not necessarily face-to-face. We have different ways of collecting information. Our enumerators will visit households for the face-to-face interviews. We also have a self-administered questionnaire, which will be given by enumerators. The questionnaire will be eight pages [long] and has a total of 53 items, which can be answered in 15 to 20 minutes,” Mapa said, adding that household heads can also give their mobile or landline number to enumerators for the telephone interview. “Online answering is also an option. We will give them a code. We have a computer-aided way of answering. There are a lot of options if face-to-face interviews will not be possible,” Mapa said.
