The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) warned the public against unscrupulous individuals who present themselves as employees of DSWD conducting a house-to-house assessment and asking money from the families in exchange for a promise to include them as beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

The incident alarmed the department after receiving reports about bogus field workers who take advantage of the ongoing household assessment. The said assessment is conducted by the Listahanan or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).

Deputy Regional Project Manager for Listahanan-DSWD 9, Pilar F. Francisco, clarified that the officially hired field workers are given identification cards with name, ID number, picture and signature of the Regional Director. These IDs are required to be worn by the enumerators, area supervisors and area coordinators at all times when they are on field to be identified as workers of the DSWD.

Furthermore, the enumerators will be using a 4-page questionnaire with logos and watermarks in the assessment of households. This questionnaire uses special paper with security features that make it difficult to replicate.

After the interview, the enumerators will leave a proof of assessment to indicate that the household has already been assessed. This proof of assessment, likewise, bears security features making it difficult to copy.

More importantly, the field workers of the DSWD do not collect and ask for any payment for the conduct of the assessment. Listahanan does not guarantee the assessed families that the latter will be included in any programs and services. However, database of poor families as identified by the Listahanan will serve as basis in the identification of potential beneficiaries of the social protection stakeholders.

The incident is now under further investigation by the field office.

The public is encouraged to inform the DSWD office of any similar incident for proper action. They may also send their concerns to text hotline numbers 0918-9122813 by texting Listahanan<space>name<space>location<space>grievance/inquiry.

Listahanan enumerator doing an actual household assessment