The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) warned the public against “bogus” survey enumerators who extort money from the families in exchange for a promise to include them as beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino programs.
Individuals are allegedly taking advantage of the ongoing assessment of poor families under Listahanan or National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
“We have not recorded any case so far that was brought to our office. Nevertheless, we would like to inform the public that our enumerators have IDs and when in doubt, they could ask for their IDs,” said Evangeline B. Felecio, DSWD Assistant regional director for Administration and Listahanan focal person.
Listahanan is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are. It makes a comprehensive database of poor families available to national government agencies and other social protection stakeholders to serve as basis in identifying beneficiaries of social protection programs and services.
The Listahanan is now conducting the 2nd round of nationwide assessment with the 15.3 million target households.
Fake enumerators’ modus operandi were to introduce themselves as DSWD employees and collect money form the household members, giving them assurance that they will be included in the list of possible program beneficiaries.
Felecio clarified that the official enumerators wear official Listahan IDs with their photo, name and signature of DSWD Regional Director.
They conduct house to house interviews using the Family Assessment Form (FAF) which will have a watermark of the DSWD logo in the middle of the sheet. The FAF is also difficult to replicate since it is printed on paper as wide as two A4 sheets.
After the interview, enumerators post a sticker on the house to indicate that the household has been assessed. They do not collect any fee from the families to make them eligible program beneficiaries.
DSWD encourages households to request for the ID number of the enumerators. If they have any complaints regarding their validation, they can give the ID number to the Listahanan office so that the DSWD can verify the complaint and take the appropriate action.
The public is advised to report any similar incident to DSWD or reach the Listahanan through the voice hotline number (02) 717-3770 local 88876 for grievances. They may also send their concerns to text hotline numbers 0918-9122813 by texting. Listahanannamelocationgrievance/inquiry.
They may also reach Listahanan through its email address ask.listahanan@dswd.gov.ph or its official facebook page at www.facebook.com/listahahan.official. /dswd6/Merry Jezzel Brendia