Bongbong Marcos OKs pilot food stamp program roll out in targeted areas

Malacañang press briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the pilot launch of the food stamp program that the  Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is spearheading, Malacañang press briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez announced on Tuesday.

The program’s pilot will run on grants totaling US$3 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the French Development Agency, according to Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian.

“There is a provision to expand it. [The] ADB is still working on other trust funds so that we can expand the pilot,” said Gatchalian, adding that the pilot will “take place shortly” following the President’s greenlight.

As the DSWD previously discussed, the pilot will run for a total of six months, servicing an initial 3,000 families in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a local government unit in Caraga, and an unnamed mountain or island municipality.

READ: DSWD: Food stamp program to pilot in areas affected by conflict, calamity  

The President has also tasked the Department of Health (DOH) to review the nutritional value of the food provided under the food stamp program.

“That was the first question of the president— make sure that the food given is of nutritional value. So that’s our role. We have the National Nutrition Council, the FNRI (Food and Nutrition Research Institute) that can actually take care of studying this,” said newly-appointed health secretary Ted Herbosa.

Herbosa also said that since “hunger and being poor are very subjective ideas,” the DOH has been working with the DSWD to measure progress among stunted and malnourished beneficiaries objectively.

“Health is the measure of stunting and malnutrition… We will locate through our partners and the LGUs who are mildly, moderately, and severely malnourished. There are medical parameters,” said Herbosa, referring to units of measurement such as weight, height, and arm circumference, among others.

“What we’ll do is make sure that the food stamp program is changing the people that are severely malnourished… until they’re no longer malnourished,” he added.

Targeting the country’s ‘stunting’ crisis

Besides the one million food-poor families set to benefit from the food stamp effort upon its full implementation, Marcos has also tasked the DSWD to include single parents, and pregnant and lactating women among the program’s beneficiaries.

“The president also wants to bring in pregnant, lactating mothers because we have to start looking at stunting in this country. And the first 1,000 days program is very important,” said Gatchalian, referring to Republic Act 11148 or the “Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act” signed into law by former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2018.

READ: Duterte signs ‘First 1,000 Days’ Law 

Herbosa reported that, according to the DOH’s data, stunting in children below two years old is at 21.6%, while stunting in kids under five is at 28.7%.

Herbosa also said that he wants these rates down by half by the end of the Marcos Jr. administration in 2028.

The DSWD and DOH chiefs elaborated that Marcos wants to “synchronize” the government’s various feeding and nutrition programs into “a family” of programs instead of working them in silos, all to combat stunting.

“Alam natin yung problema ng stunting is very important and very crucial na masugpo natin if we are to invest in human capital,” said Gatchalian.

(We know that it is critical and very crucial to stop the problem of stunting if we are to invest in human capital.)

“The President wanted a more cohesive approach (for) this problem of hunger and addressing the poor. And he was asking, ‘I don’t want duplication…’ kasi nga baka paulit-ulit lang iyong ibang agency nagpi-feeding program – mayroon sa LGU, mayroon sa DepEd (Department of Education), mayroon sa DSWD, mayroon sa DOH,” Herbosa said.

(The feeding programs of various agencies may be redundant— by the LGU, by DepEd, by DSWD, by DOH.)

“We’re trying to now put them all together in one unified ‘life stages’ approach. So, iyon ang pino-propose ko sa President. I think the way to approach it is a life stage and umpisa doon sa buntis,” he added.

(That is what I proposed to the President. I think the way to approach it is a life stage and it starts at pregnancy.)

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JPV/abc