The Philippine Statistics Authority – Regional Statistical Services Office 7 conducted the 2^nd Level Training on the Preparation and Printing of Barangay/EA/Block Maps for the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (2020 CPH). The said maps will be used by all field personnel involved in the enumeration of the census. These maps will also be used to reflect updates on basic ground features like roads and streets, and to record existence of new building structures on the ground and the corresponding building serial numbers. This particular activity is the last phase prior to the census undertaking for the Geotagging of Building Structures which started in the year 2017. Its objective is to come up with reliable and accurate printout maps of enumeration areas (EAs), barangays, and cities/municipalities in the country.

The preparation of maps for use in the census operation is divided into four distinct parts namely: 1. Creation of Geopackage Raster File; 2. Creation of Block Maps; 3. Preparation and Printing of Block Maps; 4. Review of the Printed EA Maps. The training was conducted last 6 – 8 January 2020 and due to the availability of desktop computers it was held at PSA Cebu Provincial Office located along P. Burgos St., Cebu City. The participants of the training were the Provincial Focal Persons (PFPs), Assistant Provincial Focal Persons (APFPs) of the three provinces of Bohol, Cebu and Negros Oriental together with their respective Map Data Processors (MDPs) and Map Data Reviewers (MDRs) and the trainers were the Regional Focal Person (RFP) and the Regional Mapping Clerk (RMC). Only the three provinces of the Region were part of the training since the Province of Siquijor had their turn last 28 – 30 October 2019 held at PSA Siquijor Provincial Office. During the said training CSS Leopoldo P. Alfanta, Jr. inspired the group with his experience before as a hired cartographer of the former NSO (National Statistics Office) while CSS Firmo C. Diputado of Cebu Provincial Office delighted the group with his message and told the service contractors to produce a quality output for a quality census enumeration.