Baguio City- A total of 1,887 households or 3.6% out of the 52,942 households in Baguio City are identified as poor based on the assessment conducted by the city government of Baguio and Listahanan, or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The City Government through the Office of the City Social Welfare and Development (OCSWD) and Listahanan released the initial list of poor in the city as a result of the assessment conducted in October to December 2014.

All barangays in the city have been provided with the list which will be posted in conspicuous places in the barangay hall from February 26 until the end of March 2015.

City Social Welfare and Development Officer Betty F. Fangasan enjoined all residents of Baguio City to check their names and status (poor or non-poor) in the list.

“All households must check the list to verify the correctness of the initial data. Any correction such as spelling and additional number of household members not included in the list, request for change of status, and inclusion in the list, must be properly documented through the complaint forms available in the barangay halls,” Fangasan said.

Among the expected complaints are inclusion and exclusion errors which should be entered in the complaint forms that will be reviewed by the Local Verification Committee (LVC) headed by Fangasan. If the complaints proved to have merits, they would be validated or re-assessed by hired Area Supervisors of the Listahanan.

DSWD National Household Targeting Office Project Development Officer Euberto Gregorio explained that the inclusion errors refer to claims that a household should not be included in the list, while exclusion errors involve claims that a household should be included in the list, complaints that the enumerator entered incorrect data on the family assessment forms, complaints that a household was not included or visited in the assessment, and complaints that the preliminary list is incomplete or does not represent the actual number of poor.

Fangasan also stressed the cooperation of the barangay officials to inform their constituents regarding the initial list since this will not only be about the poor and non-poor list of households but will be the database that the City Government of Baguio will use for poverty reduction planning and identifying the residents of the City.

“All issues that the barangay officials will note should be documented and coordinated with the Social Welfare Officers III deployed in all the districts in the city,” Fangasan said.

The complaint forms are already available in the barangay halls. Filing of complaints in the barangays will be on 5-16 March 2015, while the conduct of validation to qualified grievances will be on 28 March – 28 April 2015. The final list of poor and non-poor in Baguio City is expected to be released in May 2015.

“All households not assessed should file application to be assessed, while all those with grievances should file for validation since once the validation period will be end, there would be no more correction,” Fangasan stressed. # DSWD-CAR, Social Marketing Unit, Kaye Ann O. Mapalo