BAGUIO CITY, Monday March 21, 2011 – It is no disgrace to be poor… but others feigning poverty is awfully inconvenient for those who are truly impoverished.

Mayor Mauricio Domogan last week tasked City Social and Welfare Development (CSWD) chief Betty Fangasan to coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to push for inclusion of some 80-city sampled ‘poorest of the poor’ to replace the same number in the list of DSWD beneficiaries.

During the weekly ‘Ugnayan’ presser hosted by DZEQ ‘Radio ng Bayan’ Domogan revealed, “Of the total [513-potential] beneficiaries for the expansion program of the national government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), 80 should be purged from the DSWD-prepared list.”

“Those who must be delisted and replaced were found to be financially capable, deceased, have no dependents from 0-14 years old, or have moved residences outside the city,” Domogan added.

In 2009, DSWD conducted its National Household Targeting System (NHTS), a survey geared towards identifying the ‘poorest of the poor families with dependent children ages 0-14 years’ in the City of Baguio.

The survey list was to be made basis of the DSWD 4Ps expansion program. The 4Ps project awards cash grants for nutrition and schooling needs of kids belonging to indigent families.

P21-Billion in taxpayers’ money has been set aside for the 4Ps project which has been carried over from the Arroyo administration to the present.

In a separate interview, CSWD liaison to DSWD Marvin Venancio explained, “DSWD conducted an independent survey, interviewing potential conditional cash transfer beneficiaries in 2009.”

“However, since the city has its own inventory of impoverished families, CSWD in coordination with other concerned city departments conducted re-validation of said list where it was found 80-listed beneficiaries were in fact unqualified,” he added.

The city team Venancio mentioned included officers from CSWD, the Department of Education, Department of Health, and barangay-based nutrition scholars.

The same team identified 80-replacements to the apparently spurious names now being requested for delisting. All the beneficiaries, save for the 80 who are purportedly unqualified are supposed to get their grants, March 22.

Where there are three kids below 14-years old, a maximum of P1,400.00 in monthly grant over a 5-year period shall be given.

The four P’s project started in Baguio in 2008. The March awardees belong to the 2009 survey list and those who were identified in the 2008 survey but failed to claim their grants.

Domogan during the presser said he hoped there was closer coordination between DSWD and CSWD since the latter has existing database of indigent families.

He added, “Instead of creating a team of surveyors, DSWD could have made the task of identification much easier had they revalidated existing CSWD data.”

“As a result of non-coordination,” he added, “even those with 12-hectare properties, contractors, and even taxi operators with several units have been included in the DSWD list.”

He concluded the current system employed by DSWD may only serve to defeat the purpose of the 4Ps appropriation measure approved by Congress since there is almost nil participation of barangays and city departments in the indigent families’ identification process.

As of press-deadline, CSWD reported DSWD already sent recommendations on how the list can be purged of questionable beneficiaries. This time, with closer coordination with the city government.**(ISL,PIO Baguio City//PIA CAR)