Three months after typhoon ‘Pablo’ hit the country, particularly badly affected the provinces of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has commenced the conduct of special household validation and assessment on the present socio-economic condition of typhoon victims.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said that the DSWD though its National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) conducted the validation assessment primarily to monitor the status of the poor and non-poor households after Pablo struck affecting thousands of lives of our countrymen. It is expected to be completed on March 28, 2013, a day before the election ban.

The validation of households in affected Regions XI, CARAGA, and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will also determine whether there were still typhoon victims who are unserved or underserved of relief supplies from the government.

The Household Needs Assessment Form (HNAF) will be used by field enumerators to evaluate the present state of these households included in the NHTS-PR database.  Household Assessment Form (HAF), on the other hand, will be administered to enumerate households who were not included in the nationwide enumeration in 2009. “Families who are presently staying in the different evacuation centers or in transition homes whether poor or non-poor are all subjected to HAF. The DSWD and concerned local government units are now identifying their permanent resettlement sites,” Secretary Soliman said.

The DSWD Region XI recently deployed 470 trained enumerators, 78 area supervisors, and 13 area coordinators who will conduct said revalidation.

“In case that a non-poor household is assessed as a poor household in the special validation, that particular household could then become a potential beneficiary for social protection programs like Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and PhilHealth, for instance,” Secretary Soliman explained. ###