The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office III (DSWD FO III) has launched on June 29 the profile of targeted poor families based on the result of the Listahanan second round of assessment implemented in 2015.

In her welcome remarks, Regional Director Gemma B. Gabuya said that Listahanan has placed the Philippines at the forefront of global experience in national household targeting for poverty reduction. Listahanan enables efficient and effective use of government resources, she added.

The Listahanan or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), an administrative tool for targeting poor families establishes a centralized database of targeted poor families to serve as basis for identifying beneficiaries of social protection programs and services, minimizing wastage of resources to unintended recipients, Gabuya said.

She also mentioned that there are already 96 partner stakeholders from the local government units, national government agencies, and legislators who forged MOA with DSWD Field Office III for the utilization of Listahanan database.

Gabuya also thanked DSWD’s partner local government units who extended support in the conduct of the Listahanan 2nd round of assessment such as provision of vehicle, printing of Family Assessment Forms, office supplies and other logistics al support.

In her keynote message, Undersecretary Florita R. Villar shared the learning and realization that led to the development of Listahanan and the gains from using the 2011 database. Usec. Villar said that the first Listahanan conducted in 2009 covered 10.9 million households nationwide. Of these, 5.2 million poor households that were identified were enrolled in the PhilHealth Indigent Program while 4.2 million were also enrolled in the Pantawid Pamilya.

Usec. Villar added that in 2015, DSWD again conducted another round of assessment which covered 15 million households nationwide. She also informed the group that the second assessment showed that of the 4.2 million households assessed in 2009, there are 1.5 million families that have transitioned out of poverty.

“We will make the Listahanan II data available to our partners because we want them to know who and where the poor are,” Villar said.

She also acknowledged the World Bank for its support in establishing the 2011 Listahanan database. In thanking the DSWD’s partners, she said, “You have helped us make our response to poverty more evidence-based, and therefore more appropriate to the situation of the people who need our help the most”.

Meanwhile, partners from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) gave their message of support to Listahanan. Ms. Ruby Vitug said that DSWD’s partnership with PhilHelath has led to the expansion of health insurance coverage to identified children of Listahanan poor and children of Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) beneficiaries. On the other hand, Ms. Susan Santiago of NEDA Region III congratulated the DSWD for successfully completing the 2015 Listahanan database.

Mr. Pablo Acosta, The World Bank’s Senior Economist and Task Team Leader- Social Protection and Labor of the World Bank acknowledged Listahanan as the backbone of information system. “We need to know them (the poor) to include them,” he stressed.

In her presentation of the new Proxy Means Test (PMT), Director Rhodora Alday of the Policy and Development and Planning Bureau illustrated how the PMT classifies households to poor and non-poor. She explained that the estimated household’s per capita income is based on data from non-income variables collected from the family assessment form. “We classified households to poor and non-poor using the per capita poverty threshold as reference,” Dir. Alday said.

One of the highlights of the event was the presentation of the profile of the poor in Region III. In her presentation of the current profile of the poor in Region III, Director Gabuya said the second assessment covered 1,379,927 households. Of these, 244,593 or 17.73% were identified as poor households in the region. This comprised 4.78% of the 5,116,976 identified poor households nationwide.

Gabuya also identified the top three (3) provinces with the most number of poor households in the region. Nueva Ecija topped the list with 69,048 poor households or 28.23% followed by Pampanga with 47,831 or 19.56% and Bulacan with 43,246 or 17.68%.

Of the 1,401,878 poor individuals who comprise the 244,953 identified poor house households, 51.88% or 727,290 are male and 48.12% or 674,588 are female. Meanwhile, 651,584 or 46.48% are children who are 3-18 years old; 32,018 or 22.83% are youth aged 15-30; 53,019 or 3.78% are senior citizen who are 60 and above; and 1.25% or 17,564 are persons with disability.

There are 9,912 or 4.05% poor households who belong to the Indigenous People’s (IPs) Group. The highest numbers of IPs are found in the Province of Zambales, Gabuya added.

On education, there are 236,935 poor individuals or 16.90% are attending elementary (6-11 years old) and 112,766 poor individuals are attending high school (12-15 years old). Meanwhile, 27,440 poor individuals or 1.96% are attending college (16-30 years old); 30.54% or 428,087 poor individuals are attending school (3-18 years old); and 24.13% or 338,275 poor individuals attained any level level in high school (15 years old and above.

On labor force: 51.84% or 726,794 poor individuals are part of labor force with ages 15 years old and above. A total of 409,882 poor individuals or 29.24% are reported to have no occupation (15 years old and above) while 23,204 poor individuals or 1.66% of the working population have no formal education.

Meanwhile, 21.08% or 51,557 do not have access to electricity; 10.47% or 25,600 do not have access to safe water system; and 32.86% or 80370 do not have sanitary toilet facility.

Gabuya also mentioned that poor households have three (3) major assets, namely, telephone/cellphone- 151,860; television- 140,221; and radio- 43,892.

In his testimonial, Mayor Santiago Austria of Jaen, Nueva Ecija, the National Winner of the 2015 Gawad Listahanan (Municipal Category) shared how they utilized the Listahanan database and how it contributed to their improved targeting system and efficient delivery of social services to their constituents. “Ang Listahanan ay siguradong kompleto at totoo na dapat sundin,” he said.

Partner stakeholders signed the “I Support Listahanan” tarpaulin to symbolize their continued support to the Listahanan through the utilization of the database for their implementation of social protection programs.

As part of the advocacy on Listahanan, the DSWD mounted a photo exhibit that featured the various phases of the project including the experiences of the workers, their challenges and triumphs just to come up with a database that is ‘Sigurado, Kompleto, Totoo’. A short video presentation of Listahanan: Tuloy ang Pagbabago that featured the utilization of the first database and the gains and innovations of the project.

The event was graced by 250 guests comprised of local chief executives, representatives from the congressional districts, national government agencies, civil society organizations, academe and media practitioners. ### (E.T.Manalo/F.T.Sanga, Jr.)