Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) launched the Listahanan 3 database for Central Luzon with the theme “Bawat Bahay Magkakasama sa Kaunlaran”.
Officially called the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction, it is an information system for identifying who and where the poor households are.
In his message, DSWD Regional Director Jonathan Dirain cited the importance of having the Listahanan 3 database accessible and available to government agencies and other stakeholders to correctly identify poor households and individuals that will be prioritized in the delivery of social protection programs and projects.
“The use of government resources for programs that seek to reduce poverty will have less impact and be wasted if the poor were excluded. Hence, a refined set of criteria for identifying the poor will enable convergence and complementation of social protection programs in addressing the multi-dimensional faces of poverty,” he said.
For her part, DSWD Assistant Secretary for Luzon Affairs Marites Maristela stressed the importance of identifying the poor households in the country to comprehensively address their social protection needs.
“Its [Listahanan 3] purpose is to provide a scientific method for determining where and who are the poor in our country. Listahanan data is generated through household assessment where the financial, physical, and socio-economic status of a household is determined,” she said.
Maristela also underscored the country’s greater goal of giving value to the use of Listahanan 3 data to ensure food security and reduce the vulnerability of Filipinos as stated in Chapter 11 of the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022.
“This includes the convergence of all government efforts by using Listahanan. There is a need to maximize our resources because we have limited ones. I hope that through the Listahanan 3 database, there is a better and more systematic complementation of programs and services,” she said.
With this, the DSWD official also urged various stakeholders to utilize the database for their programs and services, citing that their presence during the launching is an indication of their interest and solidarity in the cause to continuously meet the challenges in terms of social protection.
Based on the Regional Profile of the Poor, as reported by DSWD Assistant Regional Director for Operations Venus Rebuldela, out of the 1,512,928 households assessed through the house-to-house interviews conducted in Central Luzon, 270,456 or 17.88 percent were identified as poor.
Nueva Ecija has the most number consisting of 76,691 households followed by Bulacan with 47,907; Tarlac with 42,159; Zambales with 36,435; Pampanga with 26,142; Bataan with 21,945; Aurora with 12,131; Olongapo City with 3,947; and Angeles City with 3,099.
For her part, DSWD National Household Targeting Office Director Mona-Liza Visorde congratulated Central Luzon for the successful launching of its Listahanan 3 database.
“Listahanan experienced multiple challenges. It has experienced criticisms, but with the sincere collaboration of the former officials and stakeholders through the present administration, we were able to surpass and continuously prove the consistency of Listahanan…Providing this data will give our country a clearer path in designing and implementing social protection programs which will strengthen our leaders and officials’ desire of good governance,” she said.
As part of the program, representatives of various government agencies and other stakeholders joined the DSWD officials in signing on the “Commitment Wall” to support the utilization of the Listahan 3 database.