SEVENTEEN out of every 100 Cordilleran households are poor enough to qualify for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)’s social protection programs even with improved poverty conditions in the region, according to the DSWD.
The most recent household list of the DSWD conducted by the agency’s National Housing Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTSPR) showed a total of 46,702 poor families in the region, down from 77,811 recorded in the original household list conducted in 2012.
Conducted every five years, the household list saw a downtrend as early as 2017, when the poor families in the region dropped to 64,633.
According to DSWD-CAR director Leo Quintilla, Cordillera saw the lowest poverty rate among 17 regions in line with a seen drop in poverty rate from 12.1 percent in 2018 to 9.9 percent last year.
According to PSA chief statistician Aldrin Federico Bahit Jr., families were classified as poor if their monthly income was lower than the Cordillera poverty threshold of P11,793.
Cordillera’s latest poor population is entitled to programs like the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps. This is a conditional cash transfer (CCT) system that provides monthly stipends of up to P1,400 to impoverished households, provided they keep as many as three of their children in school.