March 29, 2024

The Cordillera has registered the lowest number of poor households among 17 regions in the country, the number decreasing since 2012.
Based on the Lista-hanan 3 of the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Cordillera, it showed the region now has 46,702 out of 268,141 households assessed that are identified as poor.
This translates to 17 in every 100 households identified as poor, according to DSWD-Cordillera Director Leo Quintilla.
The number is lower than the 2012 Lista-hanan data, which identified 77,811 poor out of 232,228 assessed households, and also compared with 2017 where there were 64,633 identified poor out of 294,690 assessed households.
Quintilla said the Listahanan findings on the Cordillera’s profile closely matches with the data of the Philippine Statistical Authority, which in its Sept. 30 report estimated the po-verty incidence among population in the region in 2021 at 9.9 percent, or nearly 10 out of 100 individuals in the region belong to the poor population, or whose incomes were not sufficient to purchase minimum basic food and non-food needs or below the po-verty threshold.
PSA also in its Sept. 30 report said a decrease of 2.1 percent was posted compared to 2018 with a record of 12.0 percent.
The latest DSWD data are the result of the Listahanan 3 or the third round of assessment of poor households that started in 2019 and completed in 2021.
The Listahanan database, which is updated every four years, is an information system for identifying who and where the poor households and is envisioned to be the foundation of accurate information on poverty statistics. As per the Listahanan 1 and 2, the lists have been used by government line agencies and partner stakeholders in the planning and formulation of social protection programs and services targeting the poor.
The Listahanan 3 results also reported out of the assessed households, one percent of the identified poor individuals have functional difficulties, 13,865 housing units are vulnerable to disasters, four in every 100 poor individuals are senior citizens, 20 percent or 9,150 poor households have unsanitary toilet facilities, one in every five poor households have no access to electricity; and 20,485 have unsafe water source.
While there are now fewer poor households in the region, Quintilla said they consider the remaining the number of poor still a big number and a challenge.
“It is the reason why we launched it for the engagement of stakeholder partners in social protection to ensure their commitment to use the data for their planning and formulation of programs and services and implementation,” he said.
He added statistics are indicators that have to be well studied to sustain the region’s growth and mitigate events that have an impact to the sectors concerned which are the poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged.
“Our numbers of poor households are decreasing but there are still challenges to sustain our gains through social protection. The recent earthquakes and typhoons that occurred are events that can readily slide back poor households to poverty. With this, the DSWD is now opening the window for social protection stakeholders to use the result of Lista-hanan 3 for a more effective planning and implementation of programs and services in order to enhance the quality of life of Cordillerans,” he said. – Hanna C. Lacsamana