The National Statistics Month (NSM) celebration was a great success in General Santos City. Thanks in part to the strong collaboration among the leading entities in the area: The Local Government Unit of General Santos City (under the baton of Mayor Pedro B. Acharon, Jr.), The National Statistics Month Provincial Office (under the stewardship of Mr. Ruben Abaro, Jr.) and the Philippine Statistical Association SOCCSKSARGEN Inc. (under the able leadership of FJ Babate and the coordinative efforts of Lovejoy Zaragoza).

By the way, the NSM was first observed in 1990 pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 647 signed by then President Corazon C. Aquino on September 20, 1990, Declaring the Month of October of Every Year as the National Statistics Month.

The NSM celebration aims to:

1. promote, enhance and instill awareness and appreciation of the importance and value of statistics to the different sectors of society; and, 2. to elicit the cooperation and support of the general public in upgrading the quality and standards of statistics in the country.

For this year's celebration, we had the usual streamer hanging among various offices (most of them were companies), motorcade and exhibition opening at the city hall lobby.

During the opening ceremonies, Ms. Perla G. Castellano welcomed the guests and advocates while Mr. Ruben Abaro, Jr. provided a good glimpse of the NSM. Meanwhile, Mr. Lovejoy Zaragoza and Shillah Manzano represented PSA and LGU General Santos, respectively in the regional opening event at Koronadal City.

We got one national event to jumpstart our long-month celebration with the holding of the 1st National Conference on Social Planning, Evaluation and Statistics last October 3-5, 2008 at the Family County Hotel and Convention Center and in Sarangani Province (where the learning journey took place). This project is a partnership between the PSA SOCCSKSARGEN Inc. and the GENSARWAI Foundation Inc. We got participants as far as north of Tuguegarao City and Isabela City to the heart of Visayas such as Kabankalan, Silay and Bacolod cities as well as Ormoc and Cebu cities to the south of the country such as Butuan, Gingoog and Cotabato cities.

Between October 13-15 saw the holding of the statistical lectures on the State of Microenterprises in General Santos City (at the city's Social Development Center), State of Microfinance (at the PMU Conference Room) and the State of Hospitality Industries (at the NSO Conference and Training Hall). We got tremendous support from the Department of Trade and Industry-General Santos City which sponsored the refreshment for one statistical lecture.

On October 17, we had our 1st PSA Eugenio Millado Memorial Research Forum at the Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Colleges. Two researches were presented: poster presentation by Prof. Aurna de Leon which coincidentally was also presented in this year's International Congress of Psychology in Berlin, Germany and the oral presentation of Dr. Mae Cheung whose research was the original version of her doctoral dissertation. Profs. Mimi Flamiano and Florence Zapico of the Mindanao State University provided their rejoinder.

We also sent our PSA BOD member to the SRTC-led statistical training held in Cagayan de Oro City for five days.

Last October 29th was the finale of the NSM with the holding of the 17th Philippine Statistics Quiz (PSQ) City Elimination at the Family Country Hotel and Convention Center. No less than our city councilor, Hon. Margareth Santos graced the event. She was always at the NSM event for the last three years. This year's PSQ had Ms. Marifi de Asis, MBA as its quizmaster. Back in 1990, Ms. de Asis was a regional PSQ champion for Region 8 representing her school -- the Visayas State College of Agriculture (VISCA). Today, she is connected with the NSO South Cotabato Office and an active officer of the PSA SOCCSKSARGEN Inc.

Three (3) bets from the Mindanao State University Fatima campus romped off the first three slots and the remaining two slots went to the Notre Dame of Dadiangas University's participants. All five of the qualifiers will slug it out in the regional elims to be held in Cotabato City on the middle of November.

We are grateful that our perrenial sponsors like the SOCOTECO II, General Santos Water District, Southern Mindanao Adventist and Fiesta Appliance were really supportive in this cause.