KORONADAL CITY — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) ongoing assessment for households in the region for possible inclusion in government social protection programs is nearly done, a senior government official said Tuesday, as the region-wide survey completion reached nearly 80 percent.

Cezario Joel Espejo, DSWD-12 regional director, said that  based on the latest data from the “Listahanan” or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), around  633,971 (77.8%) of the total  815,343 target households across Central Mindanao have been surveyed by  enumerators hired by the agency.

Last week, Dir. Espejo said personnel from the Central Office led by Atty. Justin Caesar Batocabe, Dir. III of NHTO, visited the region and inspected the ongoing assessment.

“The figures were verified by our field area coordinators. The next thing our staff will scan the documents and encode it into our database,” Dir. Espejo said.

Maslama Hassan, NHTS-PR regional field coordinator, said they are optimistic to wrap up the survey before February 15 this month.

Aside from Region 12, at least 556,555 households in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are up for assessment under Listahanan, an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are.

Used by other national government agencies and social protection stakeholders as pioneer database of poor families nationwide, Listahanan, with a total 2,362 workforce currently conducting the survey, is updated every four years. (JBM / DSWD)