The provincial government of Iloilo made available online the basic population and population-related data and information of its 42 municipalities and one component city with the launching of the Iloilo Pop Website project (www.ipop-app.com) on Wednesday.

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr., in his message, said the initiative is very significant since it reflects the capacity of the province in terms of its population and human resources.

“It is in the Population Office working with our mayors and the Public Employment Service Office of the province that we are able to present to the whole world, in the most practical terms, the situation of our people here in the province. Because the most important resources in the province, even in the whole country is the human resource,” he said.

Defensor added that more work is needed to be done since data gathering will continue at the municipal level.

“This is not only a project of the province but a project of everyone. We will ask for your contribution as we develop our data repositories and our capabilities to promote the province to the whole country,” the governor said.

Provincial Population Office (PPO) head Engr. Ramon Yee said the Population Office undertook in 2011 the Comprehensive Data Banking and Management Project to provide population and population-related data and information needs of local government units, partner agencies, researchers, stakeholders, and other data users as reference for development planning, policy-making, program operations, and research activities, among others.

To make the information accessible to the public they decided to come up with a website.

“As a population information resource agency, the Iloilo Pop Website project is in support to the Digital Transformation Initiative of the government for enhanced delivery of public services,” Yee said.

The provincial government has entered into an agreement with the Iloilo State College of Fisheries College of Information, Communication and Technology for the creation of the website.

It underwent a series of pilot testing to look into its functionality and population officers were trained on website encoding and uploading, followed by the encoding of the 2020 Basic Population and Demographic Data of the province to be updated annually.

Commission on Population and Development assistant regional director Jonathan Dioteles said the initiative is a remarkable milestone in data banking and management, being the first province to establish the website in the country. (PNA)