PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur—The Department of Social Welfare and Development said it registered close to 365,000 poor families in Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9) during its 2015 year-end “Listahan.”
DSWD Undersecretary Florita Villar described “Listahan” as “an objective way of targeting who must be given government social protection and services, which is updated every four years.”
Villar said the department uses the list to identify legitimate beneficiaries of the agency’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to include social pension.
Lawyer Araceli Solamillo, DSWD regional director, said that of 364,723 identified indigent families in the area, 165,485 live in Zamboanga del Sur; 119,493 reside in Zamboanga del Norte; 68,671 in Zamboanga Sibugay; and 11,074 in Isabela City (Basilan), which belongs to R-9’s administrative jurisdiction.
Solamillo said the agency in last year’s “Listahan” assessed a total of 704,872 households composed of 3,124,216 individuals and identified 364,723 poor families with 1,034,836 individual members.
She disclosed 305,238 or 83.69 percent of the poor households reside in rural communities while 59,485 or 16.31 percent live in urban areas.