THE Commission on Population and Development-Davao Region (CPD-Davao) is strengthening its campaign for local government units (LGUs) to include internal migration in their monitoring systems.
Jeff Fuentes, regional director of CPD-Davao, said they are encouraging all LGUs to monitor internal migration so that LGUs and barangays can better plan their programs.
“So that the barangay and the municipality at the same time can use this system not only in tracking internal migration but also in coming up with plans and programs,” he said during a press briefing on July 29, 2026, at the Pinnacle Hotel Davao.
He added that if local governments cannot track their own residents, they would not be able to include them in government plans.
Fuentes said this is one of the challenges in the Davao Region, as it is one of the biggest recipients of internal migration in the Philippines.
He said Davao City has the DCitizen ID, which also identifies transient residents of the city, helping in monitoring internal migration.
Apart from Davao City, other areas such as Davao del Norte, Kiblawan, Panabo, Asuncion, and Laak have their own tracking systems. Hence, the CPD is encouraging LGUs to include the migration component in their established systems.
Meanwhile, for LGUs without established systems, Fuentes said they are being encouraged to adopt the Registry of Barangay Inhabitants and Migrants (RBIM) for the registration of migrants and inhabitants in their communities.
Importance of internal migration data
Meanwhile, Jerome Alcantara, assistant secretary of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), said it is important to monitor not only overseas migration but also internal migration. He cited how internal migration data could help in locating individuals.
“We spend a lot of time coordinating with a number of agencies just to get to know which of them are affected,” he said.
Alcantara said they are interested in determining the relationship between internal displacement and illegal recruitment and trafficking, noting that natural calamities that cause internal displacement can increase cases of illegal recruitment.
He said having the data on hand allows government offices to act and intervene on an issue immediately.
Fuentes said it is important to have data on internal migration so the government can be more precise and speed up interventions.
Gap in data
Fuentes admitted that data from the 2018 National Migration Survey (NMS) is outdated and that they are still waiting for the 2025 version. He said the long gap between the data shows the baseline and the attention that the government has given to internal migration.
He said that although they have the NMS, the office still has other data sources that it can use to monitor internal migration and is making use of them.
He said they are using the census, the Registry of Barangay Inhabitants and Migrants (RBIM), the Barangay Information Management Systems (BIMS) from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS).
Fuentes said these data are fragmented. Hence, the CPD-Davao is looking into establishing a data system that could track internal migration in a timely manner. RGP
