• A total of 1,000 poor families received bags of blessing from the Metrobank Foundation
    and GT Foundation Inc. blessing last January 28.
    The said number of families are from Sta. Rosa City, Laguna and Imus City, Cavite and
    are among the 10,000 poor families nationwide identified by the DSWD’s Listahanan, a
    system which identifies who and where the poor are in the country and generates a
    comprehensive and objective database of the poor. These families are Listahanan-
    identified but not covered by the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.
    The Bags the Blessing is an annual gift-giving activity of Metrobank in which they
    distribute 10M worth of groceries to 10,000 poor families nationwide. Each bag contains
    P1, 000 worth of grocery items.
    Sta. Rosa City, Laguna and Imus City, Cavite in the CALABARZON Region are two of
    the 18 selected distribution sites in the country. The poor family-beneficiaries are from
    the selected poor barangays in these areas.
    “Masaya po ako sa aking natanggap dahil makakadagdag po ito sa pang araw-araw
    naming pagkain”, said Donnalyn Avines, one of the beneficiaries of the bags of the
    blessing.
    Avines, resident of Purok 5, Brgy. Aplaya, Sta. Rosa City, Laguna, has four children and
    is an on-call laundry woman. Her partner, on the other hand, Bernie San Jose, sells
    bread around their neighborhood. Avines admitted that sometimes their income is not
    enough to sustain the needs of their family.
    In her message, Assistant Regional Director for Operations Annie Mendoza of DSWD
    IV-A emphasized the importance of development partners in the implementation of the
    DSWD programs and services.
    “We hope that there will be more opportunities like this in which non-government
    organizations and other stakeholders work with the DSWD in their endeavor to improve
    the welfare of our fellow Filipinos. We encourage these partners to support our
    programs and services for the vulnerable sectors” she said.
    Listahanan is an information management and targeting system utilized by the DSWD in
    selecting beneficiaries of its social protection programs and services, such as Social
    Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. In the
    second round of Listahanan household assessment conducted in 2015, there are
    202,279 identified poor households in the CALABARZON Region.