New system to help identify poor

THE National Household Targeting System of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will help identify families, which need urgent assistance from the government.

DSWD Regional Director Porfiria Bernanrdez said they are glad that President Benigno Aquino III in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) has recognized the program of the agency.

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Bernardez pointed out with Aquino's support, more and more of the poor will be included in the assessment.

"The targeting system will enable government to efficiently distribute its resources and services," Bernardez added.

National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) regional focal person Cecile Basawil in an interview said identification of who and where the poor are in the country will be easier because profiles and background information will be kept in a database.

"The neediest group will be given support from government like healthcare and other basic services," Basawil said.

The NHTS-PR, which the President mentioned in his Sona was initiated by the DSWD in 2009 as a scientific approach that seeks to identify who and where the poor are.

This will be done through the agency's assessment of households through interviews and on-site inspection using questionnaires or the household assessment form.

NHTS-PR project management from the DSWD-Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) revealed it has already covered more than 90.22 percent or 1,061 of the total 1,176 barangays subjected to assessment in the region. It includes 75 municipalities in the six provinces of the region including Baguio City.

In March 2010, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order 867 providing for the adoption of the NHTS-PR as the mechanism for identifying the poor who will be recipients of social protection programs in the country.

In the order, all National Government agencies were also directed to adopt the NHTS-PR.

As of the moment only the Department of Health and PhilHealth have inked agreements with the DSWD to use and access their poor households' data.

In Aquino's speech around P9 billion will be needed to cover almost five million of the poorest Filipinos with PhilHealth. The National Statistics Office reported only 38 percent of poor Filipinos are enrolled in PhilHealth.