Thursday, December 14, 2017

NPA-infested areas pose threats to DSWD workers

From the Sun Star-Davao (Dec 13): NPA-infested areas pose threats to DSWD workers
REACHING the Geographically Isolated and Disadvantage Areas (Gida) with high presence of New People's Army (NPA) is one of the challenges of the validation team of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD 11).

Herbert Duron, DSWD Davao Region Policy and Plans Division officer-in-charge, said there are areas in Davao Region that have yet to be covered by Listahanan due to security threats.

He said that during the validation and finalization phase where a local verification committee was organized to resolve all the complaints and appeals, there were around 12,000 who were recommended to be assessed; however, only 9,000 were assessed because of the geographical challenges.

"Those are the Gida areas that are hard to reach because rebels' presence is strong and the life of the validator is at stake," he said.

He cited for example Barangay Gupitan in Kapalong, Davao del Norte where he said that the NPA has declared it as their municipality and they could not enter there as suggested by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Duron said there were more than 700 Indigenous People (IPs) that were supposed to be validated but did not push through due to threats.

Based on DSWD 11's Listahanan as of December 2016, there were a total of 280,224 poor households with a total of 1,544,085 poor individuals recorded in the region out of the 836,567 households assessed.

Of poor households, there were 52,795 in Compostela Valley, 44,668 in Davao del Norte, 41,208 in Davao del Sur, 42,445 in Davao Occidental, 52,526 in Davao Oriental, and 46,582 in Davao City.

The Listahanan is an information system for identifying who and where the poor households are as reference to identify potential beneficiaries.
 

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