Manila, Philippines (virtual), 3 July 2025 - The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the UNODC-KOSTAT Centre of Excellence (CoE) jointly convened a national online technical briefing to strengthen the country’s crime and criminal justice (CCJ) statistics. The half-day session, attended by around 35 participants from key law enforcement, justice, and corrections agencies, marked an important step in deepening inter-agency coordination and building a shared understanding of the United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS).
The briefing was a timely follow-up to the regional focal points meeting in Jakarta in June 2025, where PSA requested technical briefing on the Philippines’ UN-CTS compilation and submission. By bringing together all relevant agencies, the session fostered renewed commitment to improving production, coordination, and use of CCJ statistics for evidence-based policymaking.
Opening the session, the Philippine Statistics Authority outlined its role as the national focal point for the UN-CTS and explained the coordination mechanisms in place to compile and submit the Philippines’ official response. PSA shared the step-by-step process of gathering data across government agencies and highlighted how each institution’s contributions are essential to building a complete national crime and justice data picture.
Technical sessions led by the CoE, Jisu Kim, Statistical Officer, and Claudia Pontoglio, Research Officer, guided participants through the structure of the UN-CTS and the importance of aligning national data with international frameworks, particularly the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS). The sessions walked participants through the UN-CTS Modules, data questionnaires and metadata files. The briefing emphasized practical steps to compile consistent, reliable statistics across agencies and address common challenges such as varying definitions and fragmented data sources.
This briefing demonstrated the government’s visible commitment to enhancing crime and justice data, making statistics a practical tool for improving governance and transparency. The CoE remains committed to supporting the Philippines in this journey, helping national agencies enhance the availability, quality, and use of crime statistics to strengthen evidence-based policymaking and advance national implementations on the ICCS and other international standards.
