Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte is asking the Philippine Statistics Authority to correct its “impossible” 2020 census data, saying several barangays supposedly lost 50 percent of their population.
She urged the PSA to validate its 2020 census in its report that the city’s population grew by only 23,932 from 2015 up to last year.
She also appealed to the House of Representatives to step into the matter and “help the city get to the bottom of this mystery.”
“We hope this disservice to the people of the city be given immediate attention,” she said.
She was referring to the PSA’s 2020 census indicating that the city’s population increased by just 23,932 or 0.17 percent from 2,936,116 to 2,960,048 in a five-year span.
“The result of its census is too impossible. How did it happen that our population increased by just that much against the data gathered by our Civil Registry Department?” she asked.
“This is very far from the 2015 projections for 2020 by statisticians that our city’s population will increase by 1.17 percent or to 3.112 million,” she cited.
Based on latest records from the City Civil Registry Department, the city mayor said there were 333,468 registered births and 115,810 deaths from 2015-2020.
“Even if you subtract the deaths, we have a difference of more than 200,000. That is the big question here, where did the PSA get those numbers,” she said.
“There is no mass exodus that ever happened among our QCitizens in the last five years as far as I know,” she added.
She stressed the need for accuracy, saying the numbers presented by the PSA are not merely statistics, but would ultimately impact the services that the city provides to its citizens, especially when it comes to financial assistance provided by the national and city governments.
“We pity those small barangays and their residents. They would get less fund but reality check, they have a bigger population within their communities,” she said.
She urged the PSA evaluators to closely coordinate with village officials after the agency reported that some barangays lost a significant portion or between 30 to 54 percent of their population.
“The buildings and houses are still there and there are ongoing constructions. Where are the people? Unrealistic that up to 54 percent of the population vanished. And this happened in not just one barangay but multiple barangays,” she said.