Koronadal City, South Cotabato–The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 12 is ready to deploy its field staff to conduct the special validation of the non-Listahanan identified poor beneficiaries of Social Pension (SOCPEN) Program and Modified Conditional Cash Transfer (MCCT) anytime this week.

According to Regional Field Coordinator, Ashraf Dirampatan, the recent training conducted by the National Household Targeting Unit (NHTU) among its field staff has armed the latter with the compulsory gears they needed to acquire before setting out.

Undeniably, Dirampatan is confident that the field staffs which includes Area Supervisors and Enumerators have not just mastered their designated tasks all the same said that during the drill, NHTU has instilled in them the right attitude a field staff must possess.

“Each field staff is now a complete package, most especially the enumerators who will do the house to house visit, for they are not just articulate interviewers best of all they are aware of the new normal concept and the significance of getting only the real answers to each question in the Family Assessment Form (FAF)”, Dirampatan said.

The new normal states that stronger disasters are expected to hit our country in the future thus making poor people poorer and even pushing those that were previously identified as non-poor into poverty. Henceforth, DSWD is challenged by Secretary Dinky Soliman to focus now not just on the agency’s three main programs, Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, and the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) but on its other services as well, which include the Social Pension Program and the Supplementary Feeding Program.

The accuracy of data that NHTU targets to accomplish plays a vital role in combating the new normal.
“It is important to make the field workers understand the new normal so that they will possess the foundation for honesty after all Listahanan database is the only legal basis available we can use to identify potential beneficiaries of social protection programs”, Dirampatan explained.

Currently, the region is just waiting for the Master list containing the names of households and individuals to be validated. DSWD central office is the one responsible and will download the master list to the region. Until then, the field activity of the staff will be limited in gathering the Barangay Community Characteristics (BCC) in the region. The gathering of BCC begun Wednesday, May 20 and is expected to be completed in May 26. (End)###