MANILA, Philippines -- In what she called was another product from the revenues of the value added tax (VAT), President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo launched Wednesday vegetable-based noodles that would soon flood the market.

Made from squash, the “Proud Harvest Canton Noodles,” will offer “cheap and nutritious food,” especially for the poor, Arroyo said as she toured the Dagonoy Public Market in San Andres, Manila where the product was launched.

The noodles will be available in local markets and in government-owned “Tindahan Natin” outlets and will be sold between P34 and P40 per P250-gram pack or ¼ kilo of noodles, said Jose Concepcion III, presidential consultant for entrepreneurship.

Concepcion said introductory price was at P30.

“We are bringing to our people nutritious and affordable food … The VAT on oil was where the money was taken to produce this, which we are giving back to the people,” Arroyo said in Filipino.

This is the first commercial scale vegetable-enriched product of RFM Corp., Benguet State University (BSU), Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute and small scale processors under the BSU Benguet Vegetable Processing Center Project funded from a P10 million financial assistance from the President’s Social Fund.

Concepcion III said the President and some officials sampled the noodles in Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.