MANILA, October 19, (PIA)—If you think somebody’s family is not on the Listahanan and should be there, you can actually get them in.
All you need to do is see the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) area supervisor who will be accepting information updates and inclusion or exclusion complaints ten days after the list is publicly posted in barangay halls, says DSWD.
This as the government agency is currently validatingListahanan, an information management system that would largely be the basis for upcoming government assistance to the country’s identified poor.
Compiled by its enumerators who have to personally see for themselves the conditions in reference to poverty to get the family into the list, Listahanan is the common name for the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), which the DSWD updated recently, according to information officer KerwinMacopia at the Kapihansa PIA.
After ten days when the list gets posted at the barangay halls, DSWD area supervisors would be visiting the area and would be accepting complaints, he explained.
The DSWD is looking at helping 232,000 families with the Listahanan giving a face to poverty.
Complaints however may be inclusion or exclusion errors, which still could happen especially in urban areas where the surveys are largely concentrated in areas where there are noticeable pockets of poverty, he candidly admits.
When the area supervisors come, they bring with them forms which they will fill based on the data from those information.
This form would be the basis for the Local Verification Committee to decide who gets in and who gets stripped off the list, according to the DSWD.
The Local Verification Committee consisting of the City or Municipal Mayor, Planning officer, social welfare officer and two representatives of local groups, will finalize the list before any help group can get to their target help beneficiaries. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)