ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) – Field Office 9 through the National Household Targeting Section (NHTS) for BARMM-BaSulTa will start training its Area Supervisors next week, to be deployed throughout its island provinces for the upcoming Listahanan 3 Validation and Finalization Phase.

A total of 24 Area Supervisors for Basilan Province will be required to undergo the 3-day orientation and training on December 14-16 at Garden Orchid Hotel, Zamboanga City. They will be positioned throughout the province particularly in its lone City of Lamitan and 11 municipalities (Tipo-Tipo, Lantawan, Sumisip, Akbar, Albarka, Hadji Muhammad Ajul, Hadji Muhtamad, Tabuan Lasa, Tuburan, Ungkaya Pukan, and Maluso).

Moreover, the training of field personnel for the Province of Sulu will be conducted on December 21-23 (same venue with that of Basilan) while for Tawi-Tawi, the Area Supervisors will be trained in January 2021.

Based on the initial list of poor households generated from the third round of the regular assessment in BARMM-BaSulTa, out of the 77,597 households assessed in Basilan, 56,925 were identified as poor. In Sulu, 115,775 out of 160,697 households were also classified as poor. For Tawi-Tawi, of the 71,006 households interviewed, only 29,558 were said to be poor.  All in all, a total of 309,300 households were covered in the said island provinces of which 202,258 are poor while 107,042 are non-poor.

The initial list of poor households will undergo community validation to give every household an opportunity to appeal or file a grievance before the database is finalized to ensure that the Listahanan 3 database will serve as a reliable reference for social protection stakeholders to utilize in the formulation, planning, and implementation of social protection programs and services, among others. ###