The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has disclosed that the "Listahanan 3" or the third round of assessment of poor households in the country is in the finalization phase.

DSWD spokesperson Irene Dumlao said the agency was exhausting all means to complete the Listahanan 3. 

“This year, nasa last stage na po tayo nung ating proceso para mafinalize itong Listahanan at matukoy na natin who, and where the poor are (we are in the last stage of our process to finalize the Listahanan and we identify who and where the poor families are)” she said in a radio interview amid the snowballing complaints about the supposed faulty ‘ayuda’ (cash aid)  list for recipients of the government’s one-time financial assistance in the National Capital Region (NCR)-plus. 

Listahanan or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR)  is an information management system that  aims to establish a database of poor households that will serve as a basis in the identification of beneficiaries for different social protection programs and services, she noted.

Dumlao said the objective of Listahanan was aimed at expediting the identification of the beneficiaries and the distribution of any form of assistance to them.

When asked about the possibility of having an “automated list” to expedite the distribution of aid to low-income and vulnerable sectors, Dumlao said, "That is very possible.”

“In fact yan, talagang ang ninanais din ng DSWD upang mas mapaglingkuran nang mabuti ang ating kababayan (In fact, that’s really what the DSWD wants to better serve our countrymen),” she said. 

In March, the DSWD said it has so far assessed more than 14.4 million poor households nationwide. The agency is targeting to assess 16.1 million households under Listahanan 3.