NAVAL, Biliran -- As part of the 63rd Founding Anniversary celebration, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) - Biliran District Engineering Office (DEO), through the initiative of District Engineer Ferdinand A. Briones, has started collaborating with different government agencies for an information dissemination drive of their activities, programs and projects every Monday until April 8, 2022.

The said activity started on February 28 after the flag raising ceremony of DPWH-Biliran DEO with the first ever guest speaker, Ms. Renavil V. Cueva, chief statistical specialist from the Philippine Statistics Agency (PSA) - Biliran.

Ms. Cueva’s talk highlighted on the programs, events and statistical activities of the PSA in the province of Biliran.

Cueva disclosed that as of May 1, 2020 at 12:01 a.m., Biliran province has a total population of 179,312 persons based on the result of the 2020 Census of Population and Housing. This is higher by 7,700 from the population of 171, 612 in 2015 and higher by 17,552 compared to the population of 161,760 in 2010 and 39,000 more than the population of 140,274 in 2000.

According to Cueva, the population of the Province Biliran has increased by 0.93% annually from the period of 2015 to 2020 which signifies that the population rate is relatively slower compared to 1.13% in 2010 to 2015.

Cueva also revealed that for the first semester of the 2021, poverty incidence among families in the Province of Biliran was estimated at 22.4%. This implies that in the first semester of 2021, nearly 3 in every 10 families in the Province were poor or have income below the poverty threshold or the amount needed to buy their basic food and non-food needs.

The province of Biliran also started the year with an inflation rate of 4.6%. This figure is higher by 2 percentage points compared to its inflation rate of 2.6% in December, 2021. It is also higher by 2.8 percentage points than Inflation Rate (IR) by 1.8% in January 2021.

For the consumer price index, a percentage of 112.5% was recorded as of January 2022. This implies that the average level of price of consumer goods and services purchased by the household in January 2022 was higher by 12.5% compared to the prices in 2018.

Moreover, Cueva also informed that the whole month of February marked the 32nd Civil Rregistration Month celebration with the theme: “Improving Civil Registration and Vital Statistics and Implementation Strategies through Digital Transformation”. This celebration aims to strengthen and intensify the commitment and advocacy of the PSA to deliver effective and efficient civil registration and vital statistics to the clients and stakeholders. With this, Cueva also encouraged the employees of Biliran DEO to register for the Philippine National ID.

PSA is a merger of four data producing agencies composed of National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), National Statistics Office (NSO), Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) of the Department of Agriculture (DA). It was established on September 12, 2013 pursuant to Republic Act 10625 or otherwise known as the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013 signed by then President Benigno Aquino III. (DPWH-BDEO)