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DSWD-Bicol rolls out Listahanan 3 poverty database

By Connie Calipay

December 7, 2022, 4:40 pm

<p><strong>LISTAHANAN 3.</strong> Officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development answer queries from the media during a press conference on Wednesday (Dec. 7, 2022) in Legazpi City. Listahanan 3, the third version of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction, is an information system for identifying who and where the poor households are, which can be used as basis for targeting beneficiaries for social protection programs.<em> (PNA photo by Connie Calipay)</em></p>

LISTAHANAN 3. Officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development answer queries from the media during a press conference on Wednesday (Dec. 7, 2022) in Legazpi City. Listahanan 3, the third version of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction, is an information system for identifying who and where the poor households are, which can be used as basis for targeting beneficiaries for social protection programs. (PNA photo by Connie Calipay)

LEGAZPI CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Bicol (DSWD-5) has launched Wednesday the Listahanan 3 which now allows data-sharing, giving stakeholders access to the poverty database.

Listahanan 3, the third version of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), is an information system for identifying who and where the poor households are, which can be used as basis for targeting beneficiaries for social protection programs.

In a press conference, Dir. Justin Caesar Anthony Batocabe of the DSWD Standards Bureau said the whole-of-government approach in addressing poverty applies different interventions, citing programs such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS), Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP), Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan - Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS).

"On our external partners like the local government units, 'yan po ang ginagamit nilang list for their help... Si Daddy (former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe) uses Listahanan 2 to get the list for his Christmas-giving party. From small to large matters, also the Unified Financial Assistance System (UniFAST) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) are very useful for them," Batocabe said.

After a series of validation, the third round of the nationwide household assessment was finalized and is now referred to as Listahanan 3.

For the third cycle updating of the poverty database, the department’s NHT Office assessed 1,162,476 households. Of the total households assessed, about 541,137 were identified as poor in the region.

For the six provinces, Camarines Sur recorded 184,667 poor households, followed by Albay with 102,009; Masbate with 96,499; Sorsogon with 79,604; Camarines Norte with 61,542 and Catanduanes with 16,816.

Batocabe added that the typhoon visiting the region yearly affects the lives of Bicolanos.

"Kung iisipin po natin (If we think of it), 80 percent of typhoons that would make landfall in Luzon will land in Bicol Region, it's hard from an agricultural standpoint to improve your livelihood when every other quarter there is a mega typhoon that will destroy your crops," Batocabe said.

Norman Laurio, DSWD Bicol regional director said that with the Listahanan 3 poverty database, the DSWD can now share data with other national government agencies, local government units, and other organizations/stakeholders implementing social protection programs and services.

"The numbers may not be alarming but the government is doing its part to reduce the numbers of these poor households this is one of the concepts of Listahahn 3 see the figure. The resources and funds of the government and other organizations would be spent helping the rightful beneficiaries, leading to improvement in their lives," Laurio said.

Priscilla Saladaga, 4Ps division chief, clarified that these poor households are those recommended to be possible recipients of appropriate programs/services of the government and other developmental organizations.

"The 4Ps slots vacated by the beneficiaries who are now considered in the self-sufficient level will be added to the replacement of the new poor in the Listahanan who are currently not listed as Pantawid beneficiaries," Saladaga said.

She said the poor households under Listahanan 3 are not, however, automatically qualified as beneficiaries as they still have to be assessed based on program eligibility.

"One eligibility must be identified as poor in the Listahanan, the usual thinking of some is that when you are poor, you must be a beneficiary which is not, next eligibility must have 0 to 18 years old kids, and the next one is willing to comply to the conditions of the program," she said.

Meanwhile, to protect the information of the households on the list and in compliance with the Data Privacy Act, the department provides access to the database based on strict data-sharing guidelines and through a formal partnership.

"We provided a survey form that includes data privacy acknowledgment and waiver, they were all well informed that the data will be used, needed and they give their consents, if not, we don't force them. With regards to our software, as the previous director of the IT department of DSWD, our computer programmers are very professional and very good at what they are doing. We have state-of-the-art servers and firewalls, it would be very hard for them to be hacked," Batocabe said. (PNA)



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