PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will expand his administration’s various anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs to reach and assist more people in need, Palace press officer Claire Castro said yesterday in a briefing in Malacañang.
Castro this would address the rising number of poverty and hunger incidence in the country, which was reflected in the September 11 to 15 survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) that showed 55 percent of Filipino families, or about 15.5 million, saying that they are poor, up from 52 percent or 14.4 million in March.
Castro said the government is doing what it can to address poverty and hunger.
“Dahil po dito, dahil mahalaga po ang kapakanan ng taumbayan kay Pangulong Marcos, papalawigin pa po ang mga programa para matugunan po ang mga isyu patungkol sa kahirapan at kagutuman, iyan po ang talagang ninanais at pinapalawig pa po ang programa para ito po ay matugunan (Because of this, because the welfare of the people is important to President Marcos, programs will be expanded to address issues related to poverty and hunger. That is what the president desires),” she said.
The programs include the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the Walang Gutom Program, and the Supplemental Feeding Program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the P20 per kilo of rice under the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Food Authority (NFA).
DSWD Assistant Secretary and spokeswoman Irene Dumlao said the agency would use the information from survey results and compare it with other statistical information to assess the efficacy of its programs and eventually enhance the programs and services.
Castro echoed the announcement of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel that the P20 per kilo rice from the NFA would be sold in Cebu starting May 1 and in Kadiwa centers in Visayas starting May 2.
She said the NFA has a current rice inventory of 10.1 million bags of palay and 1.2 million bags of milled rice.
Laurel said under the P20 Rice Project, the NFA rice that is usually sold at P29 per kilo would now be sold at P20 per kilo.
For the pilot run, participating local government units would subsidize part of the cost of the rice to make it more accessible to the public especially the indigents and other vulnerable sectors.
Senatorial candidate Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said his years of experience in the Senate should be a big help for him to craft measures that will bring down food prices once he wins in the midterm elections.
“I can use my vast experience, my knowledge in legislative work in the Senate in lowering food prices since hunger knows no political color that’s why we need to set aside politics. Let us help one another. Our country is already full of political noise. Le us not add to that,” Pangilinan said in Filipino in an interview in Butuan province on Sunday.
He said the political noise can be lessened, if not totally eliminated, if government officials refocus on job creation and lowering prices of food.
In support of Filipinos amid the high prices of food, the former senator is also proposing a “Libreng Almusal” (Free Breakfast) program for daycare to senior high school students in public schools, which will work in tandem with his Sagip Saka Act, a law he authored and passed in 2019 to allow national and local governments to purchase food directly from farmers and fisherfolk.
Pangilinan said that his proposed free breakfast program must allocate half of its budget to buying directly from the community’s farmers and fishermen to expand the market access of agricultural workers since the government is the country’s biggest purchaser of food.
The former senator said his promise to lower the prices of food is something he has already done before as the food security secretary of the late former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, when he brought down rice inflation to just 0.8 percent and overall inflation to 1.5 percent.
Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. said the P20 per kilo of rice to be introduced in the Visayas region is a good start to implement the same in the rest of the county.
Revilla said bringing down the price of rice, even initially in the Visayas region, is a move in the right direction that will benefit Filipinos nationwide.
“This is a good start and we hope that this will also immediately implemented in the whole country,” Revilla said in Filipino in an interview in Baguio City. – With Raymond Africa
