Release Date :
Reference Number :
2018-NA07-021
PSA Central Visayas hosted the convergence of Philippine statisticians for the 2018 Philippine Statistical Association, Inc. (PSAI) Annual Conference on 19-21 September 2018 held at Bohol Tropics Resort, Tagbilaran City, Bohol. This year’s conference adopted the theme "Emerging Trends in Statistical Development” as the country holds its ground in global conversations on emerging developments such as open data, big data platforms and data science. The theme is also in cognizant with the collective effort of professional social science associations under the Philippine Social Science Council, Inc. (PSSC) which is celebrating its 50th Founding Anniversary in commemoration of the social science legacies in these changing times. Professionals from public and private sector, academe, and all other interested parties were invited to prepare papers and participate in this Conference and attend the trainings.
The 2018 PSAI Annual Conference started with four parallel trainings conducted on 19 September 2018 evolving the topics on Spatial Statistics, Infographics, Descriptive and Exploratory Techniques in R, and Correcting Common Misconceptions in Statistics: For K-12. Mr. Dennis P. Dizon, manager of the Training Division of Geodata Systems Technologies, Inc, invited as the resource person on Spatial Statistics. Mr. Gian Louisse Roy, Instructor and Information Officer in the UP School of Statistics, trained the participants on Infographics. The training on Descriptive and Exploratory Techniques in R was carried out by Ms. Charlene Mae Celoso who is currently an Instructor from the UP School of Statistics. Lastly, Dr. Josefina V. Almeda, Executive Director III of the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute (PSRTI), served as the resource person on Correcting Common Misconceptions in Statistics: For K-12.
On the first day of the conference proper, Dr. Rosemarie G. Edillon, Undersecretary for Planning and Policy of the National Development Office of National Economic and Development Authority, invited to be the keynote speaker. “We need policies and programs informed by accurate and timely statistics” according to Usec. Edillon. She challenged everyone to harness the Industry 4.0 by responding its call. Industry 4.0 is a name given to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies and is referred as the fourth industrial revolution.
Usec. Lisa Grace S. Bersales, President of PSAI and the National Statistician and Civil Registrar General of PSA, discussed the Emerging Trends in the Philippine Statistical Development Program (PSDP) 2018-2023 where she focused on Measuring Sustainable Tourism during the first plenary session in the morning right after the opening ceremony. Dr. Bersales highlighted the developments that PSA is currently doing in terms of using the latest technology for surveys and censuses as reflected in the PSDP. According to Usec. Bersales, “there are three pillars of the Sustainable Development Goals: Economic, Social and Environment.” She said that many of the official statistics focus on economic and social sector because of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) but the environment pillar is something that is new to the Philippines. One way to integrate the said pillar to the Philippine Statistical System according to her is to focus on tourism and way forward. Usec. Bersales also shared the activities and theme for the National Statistics Month and the upcoming Data Festival.
On the afternoon of 20 September 2018, the conference was divided into different scientific sessions such as student research paper presentations and discussions on inflation, spatial, latest technology, redesign, statistical models in practice, and the environment. The participants where given the chance to choose among the sessions.
During the fellowship dinner, Mr. Tomas P. Africa, Chair of PSAI Institutional Development Committee conveyed the Statistics Profession in the Changing Data Landscape as determined in the PSAI strategic goals. Dr. Bersales delivered her policy statement emphasizing her tagline “Statistics pa more, Now na!”. The night ended by a 45-minute sound of music performance of the world renowned Loboc Children's Choir.
On the last day of the conference, Ms. Elaine Ocampo of Geodata Systems Technologies, Inc. discussed the Driving Digital Transformation of Philippine Census using ArcGIS. This is followed by a panel discussion on Data Privacy where Kelvin S. Magtalas of the National Privacy Commission, Teresita P. Lisama of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Danny C. Cheng of De La Salle University and Ana Maria L. Tabunda of Pulse Asia Research, Inc., served as panelists. Mr. Ferdinand S. Co, Chair of the PSAI Membership Committee led the oath taking of new members and launching of PSAI enhanced website before the morning session ended.
Dr. Milagros R. Baldemor, President of PSAI Region 1 Chapter gave her synthesis of the three-day conference during the closing ceremony. Sponsors were acknowledged, and winners of the Best Student Paper were recognized and awarded. Ms. Francisca N. Dayrit, PSAI Vice President delivered her closing remarks. The participants were made to nominate and vote for the place where the next PSAi Conference will be held. It turned out that General Santos City was most favored by the PSAI members.
The opening ceremony was hosted by Ms. Mary Antonette Jungao and Mr. Cielito Evangelista, both were employees of PSA Bohol, while Ms. Crislor D. Vilas of PSA Negros Oriental and Mr. Peter E. Enfestan of PSA RSSO VII hosted the closing ceremony.
Participation in the Training and Conference helped both the practitioners and the uninitiated at the national and local levels to better appreciate and respond to the challenges and opportunities that used to be the enclave of data science enthusiasts.
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 2018-NA07-021.pdf |
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