BUTUAN CITY- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Caraga through the National Household Targeting Section (NHTS) completed the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) validation in Caraga Region.

With the collective efforts of the validators and Administrative Aides as well as the Municipal Link Officers (MLOs) who served as Area Supervisor (AS), the Department was able to locate on the given timeline the identified potential beneficiaries and assess their current socio-economic status.

The month-long validation was supervised by the NHTS staff who served as the Area Coordinating Team per province. They ensured that proper protocols in interviewing potential beneficiaries were observed following the guidelines issued by the Central Office.

This includes one-on-one interview with the household members using the Household Validation Form (HVF) where the validators ask and fill-out the form based on the answer of the respondent and with the observable indicators. After the interview, the respondent will affix her/his signature on the declaration part of the HVF that authorizes the DSWD to process the information collected. This is also in line with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 of which provisions are strictly followed by the Department.

OIC regional Director Mita Chuchi Gupana-Lim commended all the staff who took part in the validation as well as congratulated the Field Office for beating the timeline and being one of the first regions who completed the validation.

“I congratulate all our dedicated staff who are involved in the validation. Your outputs symbolize your malasakit (compassion) to help the poor through locating and updating their status even if they reside in far-flung areas.” said Lim.

Regional Field Coordinator Aldie Mae Andoy bared that the strategy of the department which is tapping the MLOs and creating a team who will monitor and conduct spot check every week indeed facilitated the fast tracking of implementation.

“The involvement of the C/ML and MCCT Community Facilitators designated as area supervisor of our UCT field staff contributed to the success of the validation. We have adopted procedure to confirm status of active Pantawid members to give chance for non-Pantawid who are poor,” said Andoy.

“Also, NHTS staff conducted weekly spot checks and technical sharing sessions with the UCT field staff with the emphasis to prioritize potential UCT beneficiaries residing in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA),” she added.

The result of the validation are the households who will receive the cash grant as stipulated on RA 10963 or otherwise known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

The UCT is a social mitigating measure to protect the disadvantaged, poor, and vulnerable sector who will not benefit from the lower income taxes but will be adversely affected by the rising prices. The government will provide monthly cash grant of Php200 in CY 2018 and Php300 in CY 2019-2010 for the existing 4.4 million Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries, 3 million existing Social Pension beneficiaries, and 2.6 million poor household from Listahanan nationwide. ###(ABEGAIL R. ALVAREZ/Social Marketing Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga)