The National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTSPR) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office IV- MiMaRoPa has identified 242,633 poor households in the region. Out of the 513,759 total number of households assessed, 47.1% or 1,364,844 individuals are considered poor.

NHTSPR is an information management system that identifies ‘who and where the poor are’ nationwide. This is conducted thru household assessment using the department’s Household Assessment Form (HAF). The said form contains verifiable variables which help to determine the socio-economic status such as household composition, housing structure, demographic profile, household with PWD members, access to basic necessities and Indigenous People household. .
The household assessments were completed last December 2009 covering the five provinces, two cities 71 municipalities and 1,458 barangays.

The province of Palawan has 95,952 identified poor households while 73,878 poor households in Oriental Mindoro. There are 37, 421 poor households in Occidental Mindoro and 21,230 poor households in Romblon. Nonetheless Marinduque has 14,152 poor households. Most of these poor households are found in rural areas with 83.7 % share while 16.3% reside in urban areas.

DSWD uses the Proxy Means Test (PMT), a statistical formula that approximates income to determine the poor using the socio-economic variables. The estimated household income will be compared to the poverty threshold.

As of May 2013, the Department has 167,803 households beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program out of the identified number of poor.

The data are now available to National Government Agencies, Local Government Units and other stakeholders advocating for social protection programs thru a Memorandum of Agreement on Data Sharing with the department. ###