[REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10625]
AN ACT REORGANIZING THE PHILIPPINE STATISTICAL SYSTEM, REPEALING FOR THE PURPOSE EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE, ENTITLED “REORGANIZING AND STRENGTHENING THE PHILIPPINE STATISTICAL SYSTEM AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES” - “Philippine Statistical Act of 2013”.
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SEC. 25. Obligation to Provide Information. – The National Statistician shall determine whether a statistical inquiry or survey to be conducted is with or without an obligation to provide information. If such obligation is stipulated, all respondents whether natural or legal persons shall be liable to reply to the statistical inquiry or survey. This section applies to all statistical inquiries or surveys conducted by other statistical offices in the PSS.
The respondents under this Act are required to give truthful and complete answers to statistical inquiries or surveys of the PSA and other statistical offices of the PSS. The respondent is considered to have complied with the obligation only upon receipt of the duly completed statistical inquiry or survey forms. The government shall provide franking privileges, charges and postings to the survey offices, unless otherwise disallowed by law.
The PSA is authorized to gather data from other government agencies for statistical purposes.
SEC. 26. Confidentiality of Information. – Individual data furnished by a respondent to statistical inquiries, surveys and censuses of the PSA shall be considered privileged communication and as such shall be inadmissible as evidence in any proceeding.
The PSA may release aggregated information from statistical inquiries, surveys and censuses in the form of summaries or statistical tables in which no reference to an individual, corporation, association, partnership, institution or business enterprise shall appear.
The National Statistician and all staff of the PSA shall take a solemn oath regarding confidentiality of information. However, confidentiality of information does not apply to:
(a) Information in the form of a list or index of individual business firms, establishments or organizations that contain any or all of the following information:
(1) The name, address and telephone numbers;
(2) The business and products that they are engaged in; and
(3) The specific ranges of number of employees.
(b) Microdata from statistical inquiries or survey form/questionnaire/schedule prepared by the PSA for purposes of research, with care to ensure that identities of a particular person, business or organization will not be disclosed in whatever form; and
(c) Access to census data after one hundred (100) years for historical, genealogical, scientific or other research purposes.
SEC. 27. Penalties. – Respondents of primary data collection activities such as censuses and sample surveys are obliged to give truthful and complete answers to statistical inquiries. The gathering, consolidation and analysis of such data shall likewise be done in the most truthful and credible manner.
To ensure compliance, any violation of this Act shall result in the imposition of the penalty of one (1) year imprisonment and a fine of One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00). In cases where the respondent who fails to give a truthful and complete answer to such statistical inquiries is a corporation, the above penalty shall be imposed against the responsible officer, director, manager and/or agent of said corporation. In addition, such erring corporation or any other juridical entity, depending on the category of the enterprise or business concerned whether small, medium or large, shall be imposed a fine ranging from One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00) to Five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000.00).
Any person, including parties within the PSA Board and the PSA, who breach the confidentiality of information, whether by carelessness, improper behavior, behavior with malicious intent, and use of confidential information for profit, are considered guilty of an offense and shall be liable to fines as prescribed by the PSA Board which shall not be less than Five thousand pesos (P5,000.00) nor more than Ten thousand pesos (P10,000.00) and/or imprisonment of three (3) months but not to exceed one (1) year, subject to the degree of breach of information.
Failure to comply with the survey clearance provision shall be penalized by a fine of Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000.00) to One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00), depending on the gravity and seriousness of such noncompliance.
SEC. 28. Abolition of Existing Government Bodies. – The NSO, the BAS of the Department of Agriculture, the BLES of the Department of Labor and Employment, and the NSCB shall be abolished and their appropriations, records, properties and personnel shall be transferred to the PSA.
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