The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) welcomes the result of the PAHAYAG 2023 second quarter survey which showed the agency among the top trusted government agencies with a 65 percent approval rating.

PAHAYAG is an independent and non-commissioned survey conducted by PUBLiCUS Asia Inc.

About 1,500 respondents across the country participated in the poll which was conducted from June 8 to 12.

DSWD Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez thanked the Filipino people for their trust and confidence in the Department, through its various programs that gives direct service to poor families and vulnerable sectors.

“On behalf of Secretary Rex Gatchalian and the whole DSWD, I would like to extend our gratitude to the Filipino people for their continuing confidence and trust in the Department,” said Asst. Secretary Lopez, who is also the DSWD spokesperson.

“We owe this high rating to our dedicated staff and partners who continue to ensure that we provide the best quality service to our Kababayans in need,” Asst. Secretary Lopez pointed out.

“We will use this survey result as a source of inspiration to strengthen and improve our delivery of services and programs under the leadership of Secretary Gatchalian,” the DSWD spokesperson said.

The DSWD continues to implement big-ticket programs that address poverty and hunger. These are the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP), the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services Kalahi-CIDSS), the Assistance for Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) and the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens, among others.

The latest DSWD flagship project is the Food Stamp Program (FSP), which aims to provide food augmentation to the bottom 1 million households from Listahanan 3, who belong to the food poor criteria as defined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The FSP is currently in the design phase and the DSWD targets to roll out the pilot implementation by July to December this year. It would be funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through grants amounting to US$3 million.

The Food Stamp Program will be conducted in five pilot sites with “different geopolitical characteristics.” This includes the selected cities and municipalities in National Capital Region, Caraga Region and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The pilots sites targeted are geographically isolated regions, urban poor settings, calamity-stricken areas, and rural poor areas.

“We have to do the pilot at 3,000 families; 300,000 hopefully next year sa first run; another 300,000 right after and then hopefully, reach the magic number of one million in the succeeding year,” Secretary Gatchalian said in an earlier interview.

Target beneficiaries or those families whose income does not go beyond P8,000 a month will be given electronic benefit card or ‘tap cards’ which will be loaded with food credits amounting to P3,000.

On Thursday (June 29), the DSWD is set to conduct a Partnership Forum featuring its new priority programs, including the Food Stamp Project, to determine new areas for collaboration with development partners and stakeholders.#