DSWD: Listahanan sticker has no monetary value

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas has clarified that the "Listahanan" sticker doesn't have a monetary value. 

The agency issued the clarification after it received reports that some households in Cebu are expecting cash incentives ranging from P40,000 to P70,000.

DSWD-7 Director Mercedita Jabagat explained that the sticker only serves as a confirmation that the household was already assessed.

"We would like to inform the public that the sticker is a proof that a household is already assessed by DSWD. That is the only purpose of the sticker," she said.

"We would like to ask the public not to immediately believe to this kind of stories and to stop creating stories which could cause confusion among community residence," she added.

DSWD-7 has conducted the second wave of the Listahan household assessment for the second quarter this year.

Listahanan or Talaan ng Pamilyang Nangangailangan is a database of poor households used as a reference in identifying beneficiaries of social protection services.

It identifies "who and where the poor are, thus, reducing leakage of social services to non-poor and minimizing exclusion of  the poor from said social services."

Enumerators were deployed to gather socio-economic information in order to objectively identify who and where the poorest of the poor are located.

After the household is assessed, the enumerator will then post the proof of assessment sticker.

Jabagat said it does not follow that once the household was assessed, they will automatically become beneficiaries of any government program.

"All collected information from the household will go through a process using a scientific method called Proxy Means Test or PMT," she said.

She explained that they are using a PMT method to easily identity the poor families in the community in the most "objective, systematic and transparent matter."

PMT is a statistical model that estimates the income of household based on the variables included in the family assessment form.

Households with estimated income that are equal to and above the latest provincial poverty threshold will be considered non-poor and those with estimated income falling below the poverty threshold will be considered poor.

The poverty threshold in Cebu based on the 2012 data from the National Statistical Coordination Board is P9,436. Those household having a monthly income below the said amount is considered poor.

She further said once the household is identified as poor, they will be considered potential beneficiaries for various social protection programs of the government like the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

However, their inclusion in the programs still depends on the qualifications or criteria set under a particular program of the government.

Aside from being identified as poor in the Listahanan, a Pantawid partner beneficiary must have children aged 0-18 or have a pregnant member at the time of the assessment and must be willing and able to comply with the conditionalities of the program as part of their co-responsibilities.  (FREEMAN)