Filipino kids dumb? Villar blames lack of nutrition, affordable milk

Sen. Cynthia Villar. Senate PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — It’s not just the quality of teachers but also lack of nutrition that were to blame for children’s poor performance in school, Senator Cynthia Villar said Monday.

At a Senate hearing, Villar railed against the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Dairy Authority (NDA), which she said were partly at fault that school children do not perform well.

“Kaya yung mga estudyante n’yo naging bobo na kasi hindi n’yo tinulungan sa proper  nutrition,” said the senator, who presided over the hearing of the Senate committee on agriculture, which she chairs.

(That’s why your students have become dumb because you did not help them with proper nutrition.)

“Hndi naman reason nun ‘yung quality of teachers alone but the proper nutrition ng children, especially the poor children, kaya sinisi ko ‘yang Department of Agriculture,” she added.

(The quality of teachers alone is not the reason but the proper nutrition of children, especially the poor children  that’s why I’m blaming the Department of Agriculture)

According to Villar, the Philippine Carabao Center and National Dairy Authority have been in existence for 26 years but dairy production in the Philippines is only at one percent of the demand while 99 percent are all imported.

“Syempre ‘pag mahirap ang bata, kaya bang bumili ng imported? ‘Di hindi. So wala nang nagdri-drink ng milk na mahihrap na mga bata kaya partly to blame kayo sa kabobohan ng mga bata,” Villar  said.

(Of course, if a child is poor, can the child afford to buy imported? Of course not. So there are no poor kids drinking milk  that’s why you are partly to blame for their stupidity)

DA and NDA, she said, are also partly to blame for the Philippines’ low ranking in the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

“Yung dairy program n’yo, partly to blame kaya hindi lang kasalanan ‘yun ng Department of Agriculture, kasalanan din n’yo kasi kung walang available na murang gatas para sa mga bata, paaanong iinom ng murang gatas ang mga bata?” the senator went  on.

(Your dairy program is partly to blame, that’s why its not just the fault of the Department of Agriculture alone, it’s your fault also because if there’s no affordable milk available for kids, how could they drink milk?)

Before this, Villar also castigated concerned officials present in the hearing for their alleged failure to promote the government’s farm school and tourist farm programs.

She said she even allotted P1.4 billion budget under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to fund students in farm school where a P100,000 income could be generated monthly.

“Baki ‘di n’yo pino-promote ‘yun? Kaya ko lang ginawa ‘yun to make our farmers richer so ba’t hindi n’yo pino-promote ‘yun?” she repeatedly asked.

(Why are you not promoting that? I just want to make our farmers richer so why are you not promoting that?)

Edited by KGA