The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) explains that the Listahanan 3 or the 3rd Round Nationwide Household Assessment aims to identify who and where the poor are in the country and does not determine additional beneficiaries nor delist ineligible households under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

This came following the circulation of news reports and infographics stating that the assessment would give non-beneficiaries a chance to be included in the 4Ps and for ineligible families to be removed from the program.

DSWD warns the public against unofficial infographics which are now going viral over Facebook.  The Department urges the public to refer only to infographics and other materials posted on the official DSWD Facebook page, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Twitter account, @dswdserves.

Listahanan or the database of poor households will be the end-product of the nationwide assessment. DSWD, through Listahanan, is mandated by Executive Order No. 867 Series of 2010 to adopt a targeting system as the standard mechanism for identifying poor households who shall be potential recipients of social protection programs nationwide.  Its main objective is to formulate a unified criteria for the identification of the poor through scientific means. DSWD shall maintain the system and update its data every four years.

Listahanan is not equal to 4Ps since it is only one of the programs using the database. The initial list of potential beneficiaries for 4Ps came from Listahanan, but the final list of qualified beneficiaries depends on the eligibility requirements as prescribed in the existing program guidelines. These are: households whose income status is equal to or below the official provincial poverty threshold; households that have children 0-18 years old, or have a pregnant woman at the time of assessment; and households that agree to meet the conditions specified in the program.

Meanwhile, delisting of 4Ps beneficiaries is done through the Grievance Redress System (GRS) of the program and not through Listahanan. GRS follows a process to validate the delisting of beneficiaries which are based on factors such as fraud, waived enrolment, no more eligible members, and income is above poverty threshold.

DSWD partnered with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to ensure the cooperation of local government units (LGUs), specifically the barangays, in the on-going assessment. The Department wants to highlight the role of LGUs in assisting DSWD to locate the households that are needed to be assessed to make sure that no one is left behind.

The 3rd Nationwide Household Assessment or Listahanan 3 officially started in May 2019. -30-