The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)- National Household Targeting Office (NHTO) said on Monday, July 6 that it has assessed over 11.8 million households under its "Listahanan 3" program or the third round of assessment of poor households in the country.
Director Justin Batocabe said they are targeting to cover 16 million households for the updating of the “Listahanan” or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) database.
"Sa kasalukuyan, 11, 856, 498 out of 18 million households na po ang na-assess natin nationwide (Currently, we have assessed 11, 856, 498 out of 18 million households nationwide)," he said during a virtual ninth town hall meeting initiated by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) on Monday.
Listahanan or the NHTS-PR is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are. It is updated every four years.
"Isinasagawa ang pangatlong Listahanan o Listahanan 3 (The Listahanan 3 is being conducted) , ang target po natin (our target) ay makapunta sa (is to reach) 16 million households," Batocabe said.
He noted around 9, 568, 561 household assessment forms have been encoded.
The last Listahanan was in 2016 and 2020 is the Listahanan year. While the Listahanan may be delayed, adjustments are being made to ensure that this will be completed, while
being conducted in amanner compliant with health and safety protocols.
He noted that DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista already issued a memorandum as of June 1 directing the resumption of the third round of the household assessment, which was suspended because of COVID-19 pandemic.
He said in 2009, the DSWD assessed 10.9 million households, 5.2 million of whom have been identified as poor while in 2015, 5.1 million households were identified as poor, he said.
According to Batocabe, among the objectives of Listahan are "to formulate a unified criteria for the identification of the poor population through scientific means, to facilitate sharing of quality database to public and private social protection stakeholders, and to reduce leakage or inclusion of non-poor and under coverage or exclusion of poor in social protection programs and services."