The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region III presented on December 6 the profile of targeted poor families based on the result of Listahanan’s third round of assessment implemented in 2019-2021. It was also noted that the local government unit of Cabanatuan was the first Listahanan 3 data-user. 

The third assessment covered 1,512,928 households in Central Luzon. Of these, 270,456, or 17.88% were identified as poor households. This comprised 4.83% of the 5,599,091 identified poor households nationwide.

The poor households were identified through the Listahanan third assessment conducted in 2019-2021. The Listahanan or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) is an administrative tool for targeting poor families.

The assessment used the Proxy Means Test (PMT) model to estimate the per capita income of the households. Through this assessment, the DSWD Region III identified 270,456 targeted poor households regionwide with annual per capita income less than the poverty threshold reported by the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) for 2015.

Meanwhile, 124,440 poor individuals of the targeted poor households reside in urban areas and 146,016 live in rural areas. 

The top three (3) provinces with the most number of poor households in the region. Nueva Ecija topped the list with 76,691 poor households followed by Bulacan with 47,907 and Tarlac with 42,159..

Of the 1,548,767 poor individuals who comprise the 270,456 identified poor house households, 52% or 802,553 are male and 48% or 746,214 are female. Meanwhile, 815,902 or 52.7% are children who are 3-18 years old; 393,498 or 25.4% are youth aged 15-30; 51,034 or 3.3% are senior citizen who are 60 and above; and 1% or 14,951 are persons with disability.

There are 16,137 or 5.97% poor households who belong to the Indigenous People’s (IPs) Group. The highest numbers of IPs are found in the Province of Zambales.

On education, there are 288,039 poor individuals or 94.03% are attending elementary (6-11 years old) and 199,090 or 84.74% poor individuals are attending high school (12-15 years old). 

On labor force: 44.53% or 371,962 poor individuals who are part of the labor force with ages 15 years old and above have reported occupation. A total of 463,362 poor individuals or 55.47% are reported to have no occupation (15 years old and above).

Meanwhile, 11.41% or 30,848 do not have access to electricity; 11.69% or 31,614 do not have access to a safe water system; and 6.78% or 18,335 do not have a sanitary toilet facility.

Poor households have three (3) major assets, namely, telephone/cellphone- 275,939; television- 182,746; and motorcycle- 76,522.

Dirain also informed the group that to get hold of the names and addresses of poor households, families or individuals, a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the DSWD and the interested data user must be responsible in utilizing the data.

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, Kumpleto, Totoo’. A short video presentation of Listahanan Journeyxdd that featured the utilization of the first database and the gains and innovations of the project.

The event was graced by 250 guests composed of local chief executives, representatives from the congressional districts, national government agencies, civil society organizations, academe and media practitioners. ###