Residents stay at a temporary shelter in BASECO Compound compound in Tondo, Manila on July 7, 2022. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA - The Department of Social Welfare and Development is looking to speed up the implementation of its Food Stamp program, which targets to help 1 million families by 2027, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said on Monday.

This was after the National Economic and Development Authority drew criticism over the P64 per day threshold for food poverty in the country.

Gatchalian said that while he acknowledges that NEDA is using science in its computation, DSWD uses a different lens when looking at food poverty. The social welfare chief said their agency uses other indicators in determining whether a family is poor or not.

“Nilinaw naman ng NEDA na ang inilabas nilang food-poor threshold ay isa lamang sa mga development indicators na ginamit nila. Sinabi nila na hindi rin naman ito ang gagamiting batayan para sa mga anti-poverty programs,” Gatchalian said.

(NEDA clarified that it's just one of the development indicators they are using. They also said they will not use it as the yardstick for anti-poverty programs.)

"Sa amin sa DSWD, ang data mula sa NEDA or PSA ay binabalanse naman namin with the social workers’ lens," he said.

(In DSWD, we balance the data from NEDA or the PSA with the social worker lens.)

The DSWD chief said social workers validate the numbers on the ground.

“Ang mga social workers natin pumunta isa-isa sa mga program beneficiaries natin across the country. Case management is very important. Hindi lang sa datos ay masasabi nating sila ay food poor o hindi,” the DSWD chief explained.

(Social workers do case management for program beneficiaries across the country. Case management is very important. We can say a family is food-poor or not using various factors.)

Gatchalian emphasized that social workers also assess the social fabric of a family. Based on a set of indicators such as economic sufficiency and social adequacy, households belonging to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), or the conditional cash transfer program are categorized under three levels.

Gatchalian said Level 1 is survival, Level 2 is subsistence, and Level 3 is self-sufficiency. The tool aids the program in identifying interventions needed by the family in order to achieve self-sufficiency.