A boy eats lunch near Del Pan Bridge in Manila surrounded by equally hungry children. RICHARD REYES/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Senator Grace Poe urged the government on Tuesday to maximize the P8.9 billion allocation for nutrition programs this year as she pressed anew for the immediate passage two ‘anti-hunger’ measures that would establish a free feeding program in all public schools and provide children full support beginning conception up to two years old.
In the 2017 national budget, Poe said Congress allotted P4.2 billion for the Department of Education (DepEd) to implement the free feeding program and another P4.4 billion for the supplemental feeding program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
A total of P294 million was allocated for the First 1,000 Days Program, which would be managed jointly by the Department of Health and the National Nutrition Council (NNC). The fund would be used to implement the natal care program for expectant mothers, and health care and feeding program for toddlers.
Poe said the Senate would keep a “tight watch” on how the implementing agencies would spend the P8.9 billion budget.
READ: Poe calls for urgent passage of bills vs child malnutrition
“I trust that the DepEd and the DSWD will ensure that the budget allocated for the feeding programs will directly benefit the intended beneficiaries. Ating titiyakin na ang inilaan para sa bituka ng mga bata ay hindi sa bulsa ng iba mapupunta (We will make sure that the funds allocated to feed the children will not go to the pockets of other people),” she said in a statement.
At the same time, the senator pushed for the immediate passage of the two nutrition measures, which she has been advocating since she was elected in 2013.
READ: Feeding program tops Grace Poe’s priority bills
“We have supported these nutrition programs of the government, and our next step is to institutionalize them through legislative fiat to make these programs permanent,” she said.
Poe is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill No. 1297 or An Act Creating a National School Feeding Program to Combat Hunger and Undernutrition for all Basic Education Students.
Under the bill, the DepEd, in coordination with the NNC and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, should prepare a menu that satisfies at least one-third of the daily nutritional requirement of a child based on the Philippine Dietary Reference Intake. It should be drawn up according to age range, type of school, and local cultural eating preferences.
“The school feeding program ensures that our children are properly nourished to enable them to grow up healthy, smart and alert. At the same time, by institutionalizing this program, we are giving livelihood opportunities for local producers and suppliers, as the ingredients for the menu will be sourced from them,” she said.
Poe has also filed SB No. 161 or the proposed First 1,000 Days Act to support a child’s life from the point of conception to the child’s second birthday—the most crucial stage of human development.
The measure, she said, seeks to develop a mother and child health care program for the First 1,000 Days in every barangay (village). The program should include not only nutrition counselling but also milk feeding for pregnant and nursing mothers, treatment of malnourished children with therapeutic food, and the timely provision of safe and appropriate complementary food.
“I hope our government sees the importance of passing this bill. By caring for our mothers, we care for our children, and by caring for children, we are caring for our nation–for who else will become the backbone of this nation but the future generation?” said the senator.
To ensure the immediate passage of the measures, Poe wrote President Rodrigo Duterte on September 1 last year to certify them as urgent and include them as part of the administration’s priority bills.
With the President’s certification, she said, Congress can simultaneously pass them on second and third reading on the same day and do away with the three-day interval in between approvals as required by the Constitution.
“In order to reap the economic dividends of the so-called ‘demographic sweet spot,’ we need to provide our children the proper nurturing environment to help them succeed in the future. We need to invest in our children today to reap due rewards tomorrow,” the senator further said. IDL/rga