Database of poor homes to be updated

CEBU, Philippines - To update its database, the Department of Social Welfare and Development-7 will conduct an assessment of 75,002 households in Cebu's first district beginning on the later part of this year or in the first quarter of 2014.

According to DSWD policy and planning division chief Grace Subong, the updated database will be used to identify beneficiaries for the agency's social protection programs and services.

Subong said they will be conducting the second round of assessment with the new brand name "Listahanan" and with the tagline "Talaan ng Pamilyang Nangangailangan."

Listahanan, a program held every four years, is considered a vital information management system spearheaded by the national government.

In the first district, Carcar City has the highest number of target families with 20,417 to be evaluated. This is followed by Naga City with 18,039 and the municipality of San Fernando with 11,060.

Talisay City records 9,408 families to be assessed; followed by Sibonga with 8,798; and Minglanilla with 7,280 families.

The first round of assessment was already done in July 2011.

DSWD information officer Kerwin Macopia said that in the first assessment, Carcar City topped the list of areas with poor households with 5,056; followed by Sibonga, 3,340; Naga, 3,039; and San Fernando, 2,422. Talisay City had 2,352 while Minglanilla posted 1,820.

Macopia said the assessment aims to further update the list of poor families eligible to receive social protection programs and services, such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and the Sustainable Livelihood Program of the DSWD, PhilHealth sponsorship, and other government programs which use DSWD's database as basis.

Macopia said the newly assessed households will go through proxy means test (PMT) for poor and non-poor identification. PMT is a statistical formula that estimates the income of households based on the proxy variables included in the household assessment form.