The local government of Valenzuela supported the initiatives of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in ensuring that the social protection programs benefit those who really need assistance, through Listahanan or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).

Valenzuela City Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the DSWD to utilize the Listahanan in selecting potential beneficiaries of their social protection programs and services.

“Today, we are using the Listahanan in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) especially in alleviating poverty. Comparing it to our Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS), we can say that Listahanan is more accurate in identifying its beneficiaries,” said Ms. Dorothy Evangelista, Head of Valenzuela City Social Welfare and Development Office.

According to Evangelista, Listahanan serves as a tool to improve the city’s governance in order to promote accountability and transparency in their financial resources. It also helps the local government unit (LGU) in the faster delivery of its social protection programs and services.

“The Listahanan plays a vital role in planning, budgeting and in the implementation of our local development plans,” she affirmed.

Listahanan is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are in the country. It has a unified set of criteria for identifying the poor that would enable convergence of all resources to benefit the poor families. ###