DSWD Calabarzon validates 15,638 poor households in Batangas

By Carlo P. Gonzaga

Friday 8th of June 2012

BATANGAS CITY, June 8 (PIA) -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through Field Office IV-A recently conducted a special validation of households in selected areas in Batangas under the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction Program (NHTS-PR) program.

A total of 15,638 households were visited during the special validation conducted last January–February 2012 in 11 municipalities in Batangas. These municipalities were: Agoncillo, Alitagtag, Cuenca, Malvar, Mataas na Kahoy, San Jose, San Nicolas, Santa Teresita, Santo Tomas, Taal, and Talisay.

The purpose of the special validation was to revisit the said municipalities and ensure all poor households in all barangays are assessed using the NHTS-PR tool – the household assessment form (HAF).

Batangas Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer Jocelyn R. Montalbo, in her message during the consultation, reiterated the importance of understanding the process involved in the assessment of poor households so as to come up with a clean listing of poor households in the province.

During the validation, 100 percent of the barangays in the 11 municipalities mentioned had been visited by enumerators of DSWD. The households visited and assessed will be subjected to a proxy-means test to determine if qualified to be listed as among the poor families in the locality.

The total number of households assessed represent 63.43 percent of the 24,644 households targeted for the special validation. The remaining households not assessed are already part of the list of poor households visited during the initial household assessment conducted in 2009-2010.

NHTO-PR Team Leader Theresita Garcia discussed the importance of having a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the DSWD – NHTU-PR for easy access to the masterlist of poor households. She also mentioned that part of the partnership is free access to the list and to the website of the NHTU-PR in the future. She also added that the data presented will be used in identifying poor families for the projects of the government in the fight against poverty.

NHTS-PR is a targeting system program implemented by DSWD nationwide. It seeks to identify who and where the poor are by using a HAF. The end result of the program is a listing of poor households that could be used as basis for identifying beneficiaries of different anti-poverty programs and services not only by the DSWD but also by other national and local government agencies.

Among these programs are the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens. (RIO-DSWD4A with report from Andres Sibal/CPG, PIA4A)