By Lito Dar

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)- led National Household Targetting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) survey results shows 79,135 poor households in Cordillera or about 33.84 percent of the 233,863 households assessed all over the region.

Of the 79,135 poorhouseholds, Abra registered 17,509; Apayao – 11,119; Benguet - 13,819; Baguio City – 3,613; Ifugao – 12,032; Kalinga – 13,427, and Mountain Province- 30,900.

In his report during the Regional Development Council’s (RDC) En Banc Meeting in Bontoc Mountain Province last week, DSWD-CAR Regional Director Leonardo Reynoso said validation of the NHTS-PR data is still on-going as there are still complaints and requests for assessments coming in.

According to Reynoso, in line with the conduct of validation, DSWD-CAR received a total of 38,198 complaints of which 32,748 were already resolved by the different Local Validation Committees (LVCs).
Reynoso also confirmed that most of the complaints were individual claims that they are poor and must be included in the list of poor households. “This is the most perennial problem or complaints that we receive in the region as almost everybody wants to be included in the list of poor households,” he said.

Other complaints include individual claims: that they have not been visited by an enumerator for an interview, a certain household should not be included in the list of poor household, that the interviewer incorrectly entered data, and that the list is incomplete and does not represent the actual poor households in the community.

Reynoso, during the said meeting, affirmed that the DSWD accounted all the complaints on the NHTS as part of the Local Verification Process and that they have even segregated the complaints by province/municipality. For the next step, he assured that they will communicate to all LGUs the actions taken on these complaints.
“All concerned local government units shall be properly updated on the action taken on the complaints and shall be provided with a copy of the details within this month of April,” Reynoso stressed.

The NHTS-PR upon completion would be the basis of the government’s identification of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) or CCT program, identification of social pensioners (senior citizens) and Philhealth indigent program.

In addition the NHTS-PR data will also be made available to the different LGUs in the country and other private partners or stakeholders for the identification of their civic and social programs for the poor families or households in the country.* (PIA CAR)