BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR) reported there were a total of 9,247 marriages registered in the region last year, which decreased by 4.2 percent from the recorded 9,658 marriages the previous year.
Based on a report obtained from the agency, Kalinga, Ifugao and Benguet posted an increase in the number of registered marriages in the Cordillera from 2016 to 2017 wherein Kalinga recorded the highest increase with 9 percent from the 1,076 registered marriages the previous year to 1,174 marriages last year.
Further, Ifugao posted a 5.8 percent increase in registered marriages, followed by Benguet with 2.1 percent increase on the number of those who tied the knot in its areas of jurisdiction, including Baguio City.
According to the PSA-CAR, May was the preferred month to tie the knot among couples last year with a total of 1,292 registered marriages or equivalent to an average of 4 marriages daily from the different provinces and that the least number of marriages was recorded in September with only 413 registered marriages.
The PSA-CAR stipulated that marriage is a social contract between two individuals that unite their lives legally, economically and emotionally.
The PSA-CAR claimed that vital statistics are derived from information obtained at the time when the occurrences of vital events and their characteristics are inscribed in a civil registry. Vital acts and events are the births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages and all such events that have something to do with an individual’s entrance and departure from life together with the changes in civil status that may occur to a person during his or her lifetime.
The recording of the said events in an individual’s life in the civil registry is known as vital or civil registration and the resulting documents are called vital records.
The PSA-CAR releases data relative to certain economic and population indicators to serve as a basis for policy makers and decision makers in crafting the appropriate programs, projects and activities that will be implemented in a certain geographical location for purposes of Scio-economic growth and welfare of the people living in their respective jurisdictions.
The data from the statistics agency is being furnished to concerned government agencies, local governments, civil society organizations and the private sector for their information and appropriate action, especially in providing them with the basic data that will allow them to formulate the appropriate programs and policies that will be implemented around the country.
By Dexter A. See
