DSWD-7 clarifies: Listahanan a system to identify who are poorest of the poor

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development-Region 7 yesterday issued a clarification over the misconception that the "Listahanan," formerly the National Housing Targeting System, is a form of a program.

DSWD-7, in a press conference held at a resort in this city, said Listahanan is a nationwide information management system that identifies who and where the poor are located.

"The system makes available to national government agencies and other social stakeholders a database of poor families, as basis in identifying potential beneficiaries of social protection program and services," DSWD-7 said.

The system has been intended to come up with a unified set of criteria in identifying the poor and to ensure that limited resources for social services would surely benefit those who really need assistance. This would also "facilitate sharing of high quality database" with both public and private users, DSWD-7 said.

Meanwhile, DSWD-7 is now busy handling training for enumerators in preparation for its second round of family assessment, not a survey, during the third quarter of the year. Its target will be to identify poor families "deserving of assistance" who may avail themselves of social protection program and services.

DSWD-7 personnel is now conducting training for enumerators for Bohol in preparation for door-to-door assessment in identifying who and where are the poorest of the poor.

Regardless of how many families live or reside in a particular household, the enumeration would be based on a per household basis. "If two families live in one house, still it is considered one household, according to Daisy Lor, regional project coordinator of DSWD's Kalahi-CIDSS.

The DSWD-7 would be targeting 196,925 households in rural areas and 35,700 in urban areas of Bohol. A household will be considered in the poverty threshold if it earns P1,500 per month or P18,000 per year.

The Listahanan will cover about 15.3 million households in the rural and urban areas in the country, a total of over 1.016 million of them are in Central Visayas, according to the DSWD-7. — (FREEMAN)