QC begins anti-poverty survey

Quezon City’s anti-poverty integration task force is now undertaking a comprehensive census on the city’s poor residents to determine indicators and gather input that would be used as the basis for the city government’s revitalized pro-poor programs.

Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. created the task force last year for the purpose of integrating the city government’s effort in helping the poor and providing a comprehensive and continuing documentation of these efforts.

Belmonte said poverty alleviation programs and policies must not only be sustainable but also be reliable, targeting those who will benefit the most from the city government’s assistance and support.

The task force is headed by Ma. La Rainne Abad Sarmiento, who is also in charge of the QC Sikap Buhay micro-finance loan program. She has encouraged social work students from the University of the Philippines to participate in the census activities, as well as in the evaluation of new information from the census areas.

Sarmiento said the census is initially being carried out in depressed areas like Payatas, where there is a big concentration of families that depend on scavenging for a living.

Payatas is known not only here in the Philippines, but also worldwide for its controlled dumping facility.

Last month, small communities of informal settlers near the controlled facility was visited by the anti-poverty census teams, composed of personnel from the Payatas Operations Group (POG), headed by Jameel Jaymalin, the city health department, Task Force Sikap Buhay, social service development department and urban poor affairs office, students of the UP College of Social Work and Community Development, and volunteers from the Rotary Club.

The census teams are focusing on the scavengers’ community, which is known to residents as Barangay Singit. Their visit was a part of a reach-out project dubbed "Papulong ni Sonny Belmonte sa Barangay Singit."

After interviews with the residents, particularly with family heads, the team led by Sarmiento, also conducted a dialogue with residents and members of the Ugnayan Maralita ng Barangay Singit.

The Ugnayan members informed Sarmiento that their biggest problem was the lack of potable water. Alberto Mahinay, president of the association, said they get their water from an open well that is quite far from their neighborhood.

Sarmiento and a representative from the ASA Foundation urged the residents to avail themselves of the micro-finance assistance being extended to the urban poor through the Puhunang Pangkaunlaran ng Sikap Buhay (PPSB) program.

Belmonte has urged PPSB officials to extend the program to more beneficiaries, particularly in depressed communities. Other participants in the dialogue were POG senior environmental management specialist Rafael Saplan and lawyer Dwight Ramos of the IPM Group of Companies, a private firm involved in waste management at the controlled facility.