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MANILA, Philippines — The increasing numbers of Filipinos experiencing hunger is “alarming,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Thursday as he noted the need to address the food security of vulnerable sectors.
A recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed 20.9 percent of Filipino families or or 5.2 million have experienced hunger at least once in the past three months.
“Syempre nababahala kami sa mga figures na ito. At we have to really increase yung ating mga efforts to provide for families na nakaexperience ng kagutuman,” said Nograles, chair person of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger, in an interview on ANC.
(We are alarmed by the figures. And we really have to increase our efforts to provide for families who are experiencing hunger.)
“Number one is food productivity towards food security. We have to push for more programs of the government to ensure that we are able to produce food here. And number three, yung sinasabing hidden hunger o yung [lack of] nutrition,” he added.
Nograles said they are coordinating with various government agencies ,including the Department of Agriculture to help address the food security issue of the the marginalized sector.
Malacañang on Wednesday said the result of the recent SWS survey was a result of the lockdowns placed in the country to curb the COVID-19 transmission.
Several parts of the country have been under various community quarantine measures since mid-March and it was only in June when restrictions were eased to open up the economy.