PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. wants lactating mothers and single parents to be among the beneficiaries of the social protection agency’s food stamp program, which he has approved for a pilot run with funding from multilateral and foreign government aid agencies.
“The President approved the run of the pilot, which is fully funded through grants,” Social Welfare Secretary Rexlon T. Gatchalian told a news briefing on Tuesday after a Cabinet meeting with Mr. Marcos Jr.
He said the grants will come from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the French Development Agency.
“So, that will be $3 million all in all.”
Mr. Gatchalian said the government is still eyeing to expand the pilot run.
“The ABD is still working on another trust fund so that we can expand the pilot,” he said. “But other than that, it’s all green light, go na for the pilot which will take place shortly.”
Under the program, the social welfare department will release electronic cards with food credits worth P3,000. The cards can be used by beneficiaries to buy a “select list” of food commodities from accredited sellers.
Last month, Mr. Gatchalian said the food stamp program will be tested in July in sites with different geopolitical characteristics, including an area in the Bangsamoro region in southern Philippines. It will also be tested in remote provinces, in an urban poor setting, in a calamity-stricken area, and in a rural poor area, he said at that time.
At the Tuesday Cabinet meeting, the president specifically asked the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to ensure that pregnant and lactating mothers and single parents will benefit from the program, Mr. Gatchalian said.
“Aside from the target beneficiaries of bottom one million households, the President wanted to make sure that single parents, and pregnant and lactating women will be included to address the first 1,000 days advocacy,” the DSWD chief said in mixed English and Filipino.
He said the first 1,000 days from pregnancy until lactation is a “crucial period” as it could cause irreversible effects on a child’s health, noting that studies showed that stunting already happens by the time some children reach daycare.
Mr. Gatchalian said there are already existing government programs that focus on the first 1,000 days of a child. “But what the President wants is for us to synchronize these programs.”
He cited the World Bank-backed Philippine Multi Sectoral Nutrition Program, which was launched more than two months ago. The four-year program is financed by a $178.1-million or about P9.7-billion loan approved by the World Bank last year.
“The problem of stunting is very important and very crucial to address if we are to invest in human capital,” Mr. Gatchalian said.
One in every five Filipino children aged 0 to 23 months old and 28.7% of children below 5 years old are stunted, Health Secretary Teodoro J. Herbosa said at the same briefing.
“That’s high.”
For its part, the Department of Health will ensure that the food stamp program is “changing the people that are severely malnourished… until they’re no longer malnourished.”
Mr. Herbosa said the Department of Interior and Local Government will also help in executing the program at the local level.
Mr. Herbosa also said it’s important for the government to implement unified programs that target the first 1000 days of a child because “brain development starts in the womb and then it continues with mandatory breastfeeding.”
“The focus of the past has been the school age. You fully develop an adult brain by the time we go to school. So even if I do the feeding, the damage has happened,” he said.
A Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll in May showed that half of Filipino families or 14 million households described themselves as poor in the first quarter of 2023 — a steady figure from the December poll.
In terms of employment, think tank Ibon Foundation said that by hours worked, the number of people employed full time fell by 568,000 between Dec. 22 and March 23. Those in part-time work increased by 15,000.
It said that by class of workers, employment in private establishments fell by 475,000 to 23.1 million in March.
With no formal wage and salary work in enterprises so scarce, 21.1 million Filipinos were struggling with the low or no pay from self-employment and informal work, Ibon said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza