Screengrab from DSWD Region IX Facebook.
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Grace Poe on Tuesday pressed the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to ensure that the P2.2-billion unspent fund for the agency’s feeding program is utilized.
During the Senate plenary debates on the 2021 budget of the DSWD, senators learned that at least P2.2 billion or 60 percent of the budget allocated for Supplemental Feeding Program has yet to be spent.
“Since we don’t have the regular academic schedule, meaning, physical presence in schools, which is actually the venue where we are able to extend the supplemental feeding program to the children, I’d like to know more or less what hybrid situation the DSWD has come up with in order to facilitate the distribution of the food to the children,” Poe said.
“Okay lang naman ‘yun kung papaano maipapamahagi basta magamit ang pera at makarating ang pagkain sa mga bata kasi pwede naman talaga sa mga evacuation center at sa iba’t ibang mga tanggapan kung doon makukuha ang pagkain,” she added.
(Regardless of how the feeding program can be implemented, we have to ensure that the money if utilized and that food will reach the children, we can distribute it to evacuation centers and to other centers where they can get their food ration.)
The program is one of the components of Republic Act 11037 or Masustansyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino Act, which Poe authored.
Implemented by the DSWD, the feeding program provides undernourished children aged three to five years old in day care centers with one fortified meal for not less than 120 days in a year.
Children-beneficiaries used to receive food rations in day care centers in the past years. But because of the pandemic and the recent calamities, the food packs were also delivered to evacuation centers or directly to the homes of the kids with the help of the local government units.
Further, Poe said the government should also maximize the use of information and communications technology solutions
into its programs to make the distribution of cash aid to the people faster and more efficient.
The use of mobile wallets, PayMaya, StarPay and the like will help give the beneficiaries ease in receiving the cash assistance, instead of making them wait in long lines, according to Poe.
She said handing out the food ration to the children as mandated by law as well as the provision of cash aid to the families affected by the pandemic and the recent typhoons should be systematic and fast, especially in urgent situations.