TACLOBAN CITY- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is set to conduct the second round on the enumeration of households in the whole region. This was disclosed by Yvonne Abonales, chief of the policy and plans division of the DSWD-8, who said that the enumeration is slated to be held before the end of the year. The National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) is in accordance with the Executive Order 867 which aims to identify who and where the poor are in the Philippines.
“The households that will be listed in this database will be our target for program implementation. All beneficiaries of social protection programs of the government should come from the NHTS-PR list,” Abonales said in an interview. As of the August of this year monitoring of the DSWD, there are 269, 167 registered/ active households in the whole region.
Once the enumeration starts in October or November, the encoding should be done by December, Abonales informed. Meanwhile, with regard to the 4Ps student beneficiaries’ issue, Abonales has clarified that beneficiaries who turns 18 are only delisted from the 4Ps (Pamilyang Pantawid Pilipino Program) but not on the database.
“If a student beneficiary turns 18, he or she can still avail of other programs offered by the DSWD as long as he or she coordinate first with their respective local government units,” Abonales said. The DSWD has more than 1,000 scholars and has already produced four graduates from Leyte Normal University (LNU) and Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU) in the past two years. At present, the DSWD has expanded the choice of universities for convenience and practical reasons especially to those scholars coming from other provinces.
The scholarship programs of the DSWD are in coordination with the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education.
(ROSE ANGELIE S. CASTILLANO, LNU Intern)
