As part of their efforts to ensure that only the rightful beneficiaries are included in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman emphasized that measures and systems continue to be enforced to maintain a clean database for the program.

“We have a Grievance Redress System (GRS) which captures and processes complaints about the program and the beneficiaries. Through this, we have already delisted more than 77,000 beneficiaries,” she said.

She also added that the Department conducts regular spot checks nationwide and consultations with different partner-agencies and organizations to help improve the implementation of the program.

Sec. Soliman made this statement in reaction to recent reports citing a paper by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which stated “improvements are needed in the program’s targeting system to reduce an estimated leakage rate of 30%”.

ADB however has already issued a clarification saying that the paper they published referred to studies from 2013 and 2011, which in turn used data from 2009.

“It has been six years since the data being referred to was generated. Then, we only had 700,000 household-beneficiaries. Now, we have expanded to more than 4.4-million. A number of steps have already been taken to address the problems that arose when it was still being started. Different institutions, including ADB, has even recognized the Department’s efforts in line with this,” she added.

Second assessment

Sec. Soliman shared that the Department is currently conducting its second round of National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) that will profile whether a household is poor, near-poor or non-poor through the indicators specified by the Department.

“The NHTS-PR, or Listahanan, will help us determine who and where the poor are. After this second round of assessment, we should be able to get a registry of who should be included in our programs, particularly the Pantawid Pamilya,” she explained.

She pointed out recent disasters, which rendered many families poor, homeless and, some, jobless, thus making them much more in need of government support.

The Social Welfare Secretary enjoined the public to report, through the GRS, any complaint or questions about the Pantawid Pamilya. Messages can be sent through the text hotline 09189122813 or via electronic mail 4psreklamo@gmail.com or via Facebook: Tanggapan ng Reklamo.#