This chapter presents and discusses the important concepts that will be used in the CBMS data collection. A clear understanding of the concepts is required of everyone involved in CBMS, particularly those tasked with data collection. Adherence to the concepts ensures that the data to be collected is reliable. Refer to this chapter as often as necessary for you to fully understand the concepts, terms used, and data requirements for the CBMS data collection.
6.1 Building
Definition of a building
A building is defined as any structure built, designed, or intended for the enclosure, shelter, or protection of any person, animal, or property. It consists of one (1) or more rooms and/or other spaces, covered by a roof, and usually enclosed within external walls or with common dividing walls with adjacent buildings, which usually extend from the foundation to the roof.
Buildings to be listed
Each building within the barangay/enumeration area (EA) will be visited, but not all buildings will be included in the listing. For purposes of the 2023 CBMS data collection, only those buildings contain (1) living quarters, and (2) service facilities and infrastructures whether occupied or vacant, are to be listed by CBMS Enumerators.
Living quarters are structurally separate and independent places of abode. Considered as living quarters are the following:
Those which have been constructed, built, converted, or arranged for human habitation, provided that they are not at the time of the data collection used wholly for other purposes; or
Those which have been constructed for purposes other than human habitation but being used as living quarters at the time of the data collection.
More specifically, the buildings to be listed as living quarters are the following:
Residential building that is presently occupied by a household;
A residential building is a building, which has been designed or constructed, and is intended for abode such as a single house, duplex house, apartment, condominium, or other multi-unit residential building;
Vacant residential building, except that which is open to elements, that is, the roofs, walls, windows, and/or doors no longer protect the interior of the building from wind and rain as a result of fire, deterioration, or vandalism;
Vacant deteriorated residential building, which shows some signs that deterioration is being prevented to some extent, such as when the windows and/or doors are covered with wood, metal, or other materials to keep them from being destroyed or to prevent entry into the building, or when secondary posts are added to prevent the building from collapsing;
New residential building, which is still not occupied or still under construction, if at the time of the visit, the roofs and walls are already in place;
Residential building, which is presently not occupied by a household but used for purposes other than residential, provided that it still has one or more vacant housing units (VHU);
Example: An apartment building with three (3) units, two (2) of which are used as business offices and the other one is vacant.
Non-residential building presently occupied by a household;
The nonresidential building is a building that has been designed or constructed for purposes other than residential. This includes commercial, industrial, and agricultural buildings such as an office, rice mill, and barn; and other nonresidential buildings such as a church, school, and others;
A nonresidential building, which has one or more VHUs with complete facilities for cooking, dining, and sleeping, with or without inner partitions; and
Other structures not intended for human habitation but are presently occupied by a household, such as a cart (kariton), abandoned railroad car, dilapidated bus, culvert, trailer, barge, boat, cemetery, and others.
6.2 Housing Unit
Definition of a housing unit
A housing unit is a structurally separate and independent place of abode which has been constructed, converted, or arranged, and is intended for habitation by one, or more households.
Structures that are not intended for habitation, such as commercial, industrial, and agricultural buildings, or natural and man-made shelters such as a boat, abandoned truck, culvert, and others, but are used as living quarters by households are also considered as housing units. In the same manner, parts of structures of residential and nonresidential buildings that are used as living quarters by households such as a garage, stock room, and others shall be considered as housing units if they meet the requirements in the discussion below.
How to identify housing units in a building
Normally, a housing unit is intended for habitation by one household. However, in some cases, two or more households may share the same building or the same housing unit as their place of habitation. The building may have more than one housing unit but from its physical layout, the different housing units may not be discernible.
A portion of a building (a room or a group of rooms) qualifies as a separate housing unit if it meets both the following requirements:
- Separateness – the portion of a building must have facilities for sleeping, preparing, and taking meals, and its occupants must be isolated from the other households in the building using walls or permanent partitions; and
- Direct access – the portion of the building can be accessed directly from the outside of the building, that is, the occupants can come into the portion of the building without passing through anybody else’s premises from the street, pathway, alley, road, yard, catwalk, public or communal staircase, passage, gallery, grounds or through a common hall.
If the portion of the building is vacant, the aforementioned guidelines will apply to the intended occupants.
Figure 6.1
EXAMPLES OF HOUSING UNITS WITH DIRECT ACCESS
- A single house has been modified, the structure of which is shown in the foregoing illustration: The modified structure has four (4) rooms, a common hallway, a common toilet and bath, and one (1) main entrance from the outside. The individual rooms can be accessed from a common hallway. The occupants take their meals and sleep in their respective rooms. This building has four (4) housing units.
- A house has two (2) rooms.
The occupants of the rooms share all the other areas in the house, including the kitchen and dining area. Since the occupants of the rooms have no private area for dining and have to pass through the common premises to reach their own room, this structure contains only a single housing unit.
- A house has two (2) storeys
The first floor of the house is subdivided into two (2) units, each having a separate entrance from the outside. The access to the second floor is the stairs in the living room of one of the units on the first floor. This house has two (2) housing units:
- one is the unit on the ground floor covering only the shaded area, which has a living room, bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and toilet and bath; and
- the other one is the unit covering the rest of the ground floor and the entire second floor. In this case, the second floor cannot be considered as a separate housing unit even though it has its own facilities for sleeping and preparing/taking meals, because its access is only through the premises of the ground floor.
Housing units to be listed
The housing units identified in the barangay/EA will be listed. The following housing units to be listed are:
- Occupied housing unit and VHU in a single residential building;
- Occupied housing unit and VHU in a multi-unit residential building such as a duplex, rowhouse/townhouse, condominium, tenement house, and others;
- Occupied barong-barong or shanty
- VHU in a residential building with one or more housing units presently used for purposes other than residential;
- Housing unit that is still under construction, but the roof and walls are already in place
- Occupied housing unit in institutional living quarters (ILQs) such as a hotel, motel, dormitory, lodging house, seminary, mental hospital, prison, and others;
- Occupied housing unit in a nonresidential building such as an office, rice mill, barn, church, school, and others.
- VHU with complete facilities for cooking, dining, and sleeping in an ILQ and nonresidential building.
- Occupied mobile housing unit such as a boat, trailer, cart (kariton), and others
- Occupied improvised housing unit in a structure such as a culvert, abandoned truck, container van, tent, railroad car, and others.
The following are to be EXCLUDED FROM THE LISTING of housing units:
- Housing unit that is still under construction with walls and roof not yet in place;
- VHU that is open to elements, that is, the roof and walls are no longer a protection from the wind and rain, and there are no signs that deterioration is being prevented;
- VHU that is being demolished;
- Structure, such as a boat, trailer, culvert, abandoned truck, container van, tent, railroad car, and others, which had been used as an improvised housing unit or place of abode in the past but is vacant at the time of visit; and
- All housing units in residential buildings are used entirely for purposes other than residential.
6.3 Household
Definition of a household
A household is a social unit consisting of a person living alone or a group of persons:
- who sleep in the same housing unit; and
- have a common arrangement in the preparation and consumption of food.
In most cases, a household consists of persons who are related by kinship ties, such as parents and their children. In some instances, several generations of familial ties are represented in one (1) household while, still in others, even more, distant relatives are included as members of the household.
Some household members may have no relationship with the head of the household, for example, household helpers, boarders, and nonrelatives. They are considered as members of the household provided that they sleep in the same housing unit and have a common arrangement for the preparation and consumption of food with the household and that do not go home to their family at least once a week.
A group of unrelated individuals, as in the case of a group of students or workers who decide to rent a place and make common arrangements for the preparation and consumption of their food, constitutes one (1) household.
Usually, a household is an entire group of persons who customarily live in the same housing unit. However, there are cases when two or more distinct family groups or groups of unrelated persons maintain separate food arrangements even though they share one housing unit. Each of these two or more distinct groups constitutes a household.
A person who shares a housing unit with a household but separately cooks his/her meals or consumes his/her food elsewhere is not considered a member of that household. This person shall be listed as a separate (one-member) household.
As a rule, if two (2) groups of individuals prepare and consume their meals together but sleep in separate housing units, then the two (2) groups constitute two (2) different households. An exception is that of sons/daughters who are still economically dependent on their parents but live in a separate but adjacent housing unit for convenience; they are considered members of their parent’s household. However, if the sons/daughters are economically independent of their parents, they shall be listed as a separate household.
Economically dependent children are those who still derive/need financial support from their parents or other benefactors and whose decision-making rests on their parents/benefactors.
6.4 Family
For the purpose of CBMS data collection, a family is regarded as a group of persons usually living together and composed of the family head and other persons related to the head by blood, marriage or adoption.
A single or nuclear family is a unit composed of father, mother and own children living together. In other words, a nuclear family is composed of a father and mother with unmarried children or simply a parent with children.
An extended family on the other hand is composed of a nuclear family, as defined above, together with other relatives, that is family members related by blood marriage or adoption. It also refers to parents with married children, or a lone parent (either a mother or a father) with married children, or grandparents with grandchildren, or uncle/aunt with nephews/nieces, or cousins who are living together.
Be guided with the following nuclear family compositions accepted:
One-member household or a person living alone;
Household composed of a single family;
a. Married couple with or without child/children
b. Unmarried couple or partners in consensual union (cohabiting; common-law) with or without child/children
c. Father with unmarried child/children
d. Mother with unmarried child/children
Extended family or distant family member/s of a household to be separately treated as other nuclear families. Details on this are discussed in the Chapter discussing the instructions on the CBMS Form 2 (HPQ) specifically on data items A03 and A04.
Nonrelative members of the household to be treated each as nuclear family:
a. Each domestic helper is to be treated as one (1) nuclear family; and
b. Each boarder is to be treated as one (1) nuclear family.that couple (or partners) who are not legally married but cohabiting, i.e., common-law or live in partners, are considered as a nuclear family for the purpose of CBMS data collection.Note
6.5 Household Population
Definition of Household Population
Household population comprises of persons who belong to a household. In determining the household membership, the basic criterion is the usual place of residence or the place where the person usually resides. This may be the same or different from the place where he/she is found at the time of the data collection. As a rule, it is the place where he/she usually sleeps.
Members of a Household
The following individuals are to be included as members of a household:
a. Those who are present at the time of the visit and whose usual place of residence is the housing unit where the household lives.
b. Family members who are overseas workers that are away at the time of the data collection but expected to return within five (5) years from the date of the last departure.
A household member who is an overseas worker is currently out of the country due to an overseas employment. He/she may or may not have a specific work contract or maybe present at home for vacation but has existing overseas employment to return to. Undocumented overseas workers are still considered as members of the household as long as they have been away for not more than five (5) years. Immigrants, however, are excluded from the data collection.
c. Those whose usual place of residence is the place where the household lives but are temporarily away at the time of the data collection for any of the following reasons:
- on vacation, business/pleasure trip, or training somewhere in the Philippines and are expected to be back within six (6) months from the date of departure. An example is a person on training with the Armed Forces of the Philippines for not more than six (6) months;
- on vacation, business/pleasure trip, or study/training abroad and are expected to be back within a year from the date of departure;
- working or attending school outside their usual place of residence but usually come home at least once a week;
- confined in a hospital for a period of not more than six (6) months as of the time of enumeration, except when they are confined as patients in a mental hospital, leprosarium/leper colony, or drug rehabilitation center, regardless of the duration of their confinement;
- detained in a provincial/city/municipal jail or military camp for a period of NOT more than six (6) months as of the time of enumeration, except when their sentence or detention is expected to exceed six (6) months;
- on board, a coastal, interisland, or fishing vessel within Philippine territories; and
- onboard, an oceangoing vessel but are expected to be back within five (5) years from the date of departure.
d. Boarders/lodgers of the household or employees of a household-operated business who do not usually return/go to their respective homes weekly.
e. Citizens of a foreign country who have resided or are expected to reside in the Philippines for at least a year from their arrival, except members of a diplomatic mission and non-Filipino members of an international organization.
f. Filipino balikbayans with a usual place of residence in a foreign country but have resided or are expected to reside in the Philippines for at least a year from their arrival.
g. Persons temporarily staying with the household who have no usual place of residence or who are not certain to be enumerated elsewhere.
Take note of the following special cases:
a. If there are 35 or more boarders in the household, DO NOT INCLUDE them as members of the household with whom they live.
b. A person who lodges with a household but makes arrangements for his/her own meals or takes his/her meals outside (for instance, a bed spacer) is NOT considered a member of that household. He/she constitutes a one-member household.
c. Two (2) or more families who share the same housing unit are considered as one (1) household if they have a common arrangement for the preparation and consumption of food. They comprise different households if they prepare their food separately.
d. Two (2) or more unrelated individuals who share the same housing unit also constitute one (1) household if they have a common arrangement for the preparation and consumption of food. If each of them prepares/ consumes his/her own meal separately, then each one is considered a one-member household.
e. Persons who take their meals with a household but sleep elsewhere are not considered members of that household.
6.6 Homeless
Homeless refers to individual/s or household/s living in the streets or public spaces (such as parks and sidewalks) and all those without any form of shelter.
For 2023 CBMS, homeless people or persons living in the streets or public spaces who have no usual place of residence or are not certain to be enumerated elsewhere shall be listed where they are found.
6.7 Household Head
The household head is an adult member of the household, male or female who is responsible for the organization and care of the household, or who is regarded as such by the members of the household.
6.8 Respondent
The respondent is the household head or the spouse of the head. In the absence of the household head or his/her spouse, the respondent can be any responsible adult member who can provide reliable answers to questions asked by the EN about the household and its members.
6.9 Whom to Enumerate
Persons to be Included in the Enumeration
ALL living persons as of 12:01 a.m. of March 01, 2023 will be enumerated.
Specifically, these are the following:
a. Filipino national permanently residing in the Philippines;
b. Filipino national who, as of March 01, 2023, is temporarily at the Philippine Sea or on vacation or business/pleasure trip somewhere in the Philippines and is expected to be back within six (6) months from the date of departure;
c. Filipino national who, as of March 01, 2023, is temporarily on vacation, business/pleasure trip or studying/training abroad and is expected to be back within a year from the date of departure;
d. Filipino overseas worker, including those on-board an ocean-going vessel, who is away as of March 01, 2023 but is expected to be back within five (5) years from the date of his/her last departure;
e. Philippine government official, military or civilian, including Philippine diplomatic personnel and his/her family, assigned abroad; and
f. Civilian citizen of a foreign country who has his/her usual residence in the Philippines, or a foreign visitor who has stayed or is expected to stay for at least a year from the date of his/her arrival in the country.
Take note of the following cases:
A person who died after 12:01 a.m., March 01, 2023, should be INCLUDED in the enumeration.
A person who died after 12:01 a.m., March 01, 2023, should be INCLUDED in the enumeration.
Example:
The EN interviewed the Perez household on July 20, 2023 and was told that Ms. Jenny died on July 05, 2023. The EN should include Ms. Jenny as a member of the household because she was still alive on March 01, 2023, which is the reference date of the CBMS data collection.
A person who died before or exactly 12:01 a.m., July 01, 2023 should be EXCLUDED from the enumeration.
Example:
Mr. Robert Cruz died of a heart attack at 10:00 p.m. on June 30, 2023. The EN should exclude Robert from the enumeration of Cruz's household because he was no longer alive at 12:01 a.m. on March 01, 2023.
- A baby born alive before or exactly 12:01 a.m., July 01, 2023 should be INCLUDED in the enumeration.
- A baby born alive after 12:01 a.m., July 01, 2023 shall be EXCLUDED from the enumeration.
Below is a guide in including or excluding newly-born children and persons who died around the CBMS data collection reference date.
| Reference Period: March 01, 2023 | Include/Exclude in the enumeration? |
|---|---|
| A baby born before or exactly 12:01 a.m. | Include |
| A baby born after 12:01 a.m. | Exclude |
| A person died after 12:01 a.m. | Include |
| A person died before or exactly 12:01 a.m. | Exclude |
Persons to be Excluded from the Enumeration
You should EXCLUDE the following persons from enumeration although they happen to be within the territorial jurisdiction of the Philippines at the time of the CBMS enumeration:
Foreign ambassador, minister, consul or other diplomatic representatives, and members of their families;
Citizen of a foreign country living within the premises of an embassy, legation, chancellery or consulate;
- Citizen of a foreign country who is a chief or official of an international organization, who is subject to reassignment to other country after his/her tour of duty in the Philippines, and members of their families. Examples of these international organizations are United Nations (UN), International Labor Organization (ILO), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) or the United States Agency for International Development (USAID);
Citizen of a foreign country, together with non-Filipino members of his/her families, who is a student or who is employed or has a business in the Philippines, but who has stayed or is expected to stay in the country for less than a year from his/her arrival;
Citizen of a foreign country or Filipino with usual place of residence in a foreign country, who is visiting the Philippines and who has stayed or is expected to stay in the country for less than a year from his/her arrival. An example is a balikbayan who will return to his/her usual place of residence abroad after a short vacation or visit in the Philippines; and
- Resident of the Philippines on vacation, pleasure or business trip, study, or training abroad who has been away or expected to be away from the Philippines for more than one year from his/her departure.
Although the persons listed above are not to be enumerated, you should still visit their households. Persons working for them or living with them may be among those who shall be included according to the rules of enumeration. An example is a Filipino working in a foreign embassy in the Philippines. He/she shall be included in the enumeration but not as an overseas worker.