With almost a month since the start of the second round of family assessment in Baguio City, only 24,571 or 31% out of the target 78,313 households have been assessed by the field staff of the joint project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Listahanan and the City Government of Baguio.
The data gathered from the assessment showed that there are 421 reported vacant houses or families currently not in Baguio City while there are 203 households that refused to be assessed.
Area Supervisor Melyrine D. Tamale shared that they have encountered respondents believing that the enumerators conducting the assessment were doing surveillance to the households.
During the assessment, the enumerators are required to go inside the houses of the respondents and get the socio-economic and basic family members’ information of the households using the Family Assessment Forms (FAF).
Furthermore, National Household Targeting Office Project Development Officer Euberto B. Gregorio assured the confidentiality of the households’ information gathered in the assessment.
Meanwhile, another Area Supervisor, Cristy Morales, shared that two of the hindering factors they have encountered were that most of the houses they visited have no qualified respondents or that there were no respondents at the time of the visit.
528 houses were reported to have no qualified respondents during the assessment in their barangays which would be revisited during the callbacks.
“Isa sa mga strategy naming gagawin ay sa gabi kami mag-aassess, hanggang alas-nuwebe ng gabi, kasama ng mga barangay tanod at iba pang barangay officials. Karamihan kasi ng mga bahay na napupuntahan namin sa umaga ay walang respondents sa mga bahay dahil oras ng trabaho,” Morales said.
They have also been assessing during weekends when the respondents are expected to be at home.
Meanwhile, City Social Welfare and Development Officer Betty Fangasan asked for the cooperation of everyone so that this assessment will produce a good and updated database of all residents of Baguio City which would then be used by the city government for evidence-based planning and programming to come up with responsive programs and services.
“Everybody should take advantage of the assessment, which was funded through the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP), since this is once in a lifetime opportunity that all the 128 barangays of Baguio City will be assessed,” Fangasan said.
Fangasan also reminded the public that for them to ensure that the field staff (Area Supervisors and Enumerators) conducting the assessment is really employed by the Listahanan, the public should look for the staff’s identification cards signed by DSWD-CAR Regional Director Janet P. Armas and City Mayor Mauricio Domogan. They must also be accompanied by the bgry. officials. Further, the public should also sign the family assessment forms where the family’s basic information has been gathered and DSWD stickers will be posted to the houses after the assessment. # DSWD-CAR, SOCIAL MARKETING UNIT, Kaye Ann O. Mapalo
