President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers a speech in Tondo, Manila, on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, during the launching of the DSWD Food Stamp Program. (Photo from an RTVM video of the event)
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday that he would want to eliminate hunger in the Philippines by the end of his term in 2028.
Marcos made the statement in his speech in Tondo, Maila at the kickoff of the “Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program” of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The program will provide selected poor families cards loaded with P3,000 monthly that they can use to buy food.
“This is the continuing part of all that we have tried to do so as to be able to achieve what we call ‘walang gutom.’ And for those who are not speaking Tagalog, ‘walang gutom’ means ‘no more hunger.’ And that is the dream of this administration. That is what we are hoping to achieve in this administration — that by the end of 2028, we can say that we have done everything to reduce the hunger and poverty in our country,” Marcos said in his speech.
Vice President Sara Duterte and Social Welfare Secretary Chief Rex Gatchalian attended the launch, along with representatives from foreign funding institutions — such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Food Programme — that contributed to the food stamp program.
Gatchalian previously said that the pilot of the program would last for six months. The DSWD said that it was not just going to give the family food credits, but it also would want them to be healthier.
According to the DSWD, the food credit is broken down as follows:
- P1,500 was allotted for carbohydrates like rice and noodles
- P900 for meats and other protein sources
- P600 was for fruits and vegetables
“Under the Walang Gutom Program [no hunger program], we will make sure that not only will Filipinos sleep on an empty stomach but we will also make sure that what they eat will be nutritious so that they would have enough strength to take part in the labor economy,” Gatchalian said in Filipino.