The Department of Social Welfare and Development has listed 14.3 million poor families under its “Listahanan 3” or the third round of assessment of poor households in the country.
DSWD Undersecretary Rene Glen Paje said so far, the agency has covered the 88 percent of the targeted families under Listahanan or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
“Nasa mahigit na 14.3 million na po o nasa 88 percent ng 16.1 million na kababayahan ang na-assess sa pagpapatuloy ng ikatlong yugto ng Listahanan o ng National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction,” he disclosed.
(More than 14.3 million or 88 percent of the 16.1 million households have already been assessed as we continue the third round of Listahanan or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction)
Paje said they resumed the third round of the household assessment last June after DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista approved the National Action Plan for the continuation of the data collection, encoding, and validation operations for Listahanan 3.
Paje said that the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases has issued a resolution recognizing Listahanan 3 as a “critical government service” in this time of pandemic crisis.
According to him, the resolution was issued to express the IATF-EID’s all-out support for the updating of the Listahanan which is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are.
NHTS-PR is updated every four years.
In a congressional budget briefing last Sept. 16, Bautista said they targeting to have the final and complete list of poor households in the country by next year.
During the deliberations, DSWD Assistant Secretary for Policy and Plans Joseline P. Niwane said it is a “possibility” that the number of poor families might increase to around 20 million, considering the increasing number of people who lost their jobs because of the pandemic.
The DSWD had clarified that those who were included in the Listahanan 3 are not automatically entitled to receive any cash assistance from the government or be included in any of its programs.
“However, the data that will be generated by the program will be used by national government agencies (NGAs), local government units (LGUs), non-government organizations (NGOs), and other institutions as a reference for beneficiary selection to ensure that qualified poor households will be prioritized for poverty alleviation programs and other appropriate interventions,” it said.