DSWD: Talks still ongoing over funds for P40-billion food stamps program

The government is still discussing how it will bankroll the implementation of the Marcos administration’s food stamps program, which would require about P40 billion, a top official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Saturday.

DSWD Undersecretary Eduardo Punay said the estimated P40-billion budget requirement for the food stamps program will cover the P3,000 per month allowance of targeted one million poor families.

“Phasing po siya and 300,000 families pa lang for first year so around 1/3 pa lang [na] requirement for first year around P12 billion,” Punay said in a message to reporters.

“Bale phasing po siya for three years: first year: 300,000, second year: plus 300,000, third year: plus 400,000. [The] total is one million,” he added.

Dubbed as "Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program," the project aims to assist targeted households to address involuntary hunger in the country.

The DSWD earlier said it would provide "electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards" that will be loaded with food credits amounting to P3,000 per month to purchase a select list of food commodities from the DSWD registered or accredited local retailers.

"We will still have discussion with the economic team how to, you know, source...because of the limited resources that we have," Punay said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

However, the DSWD official said that the government is also in discussions with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank, both of which offered to fund the program.

“We have received offers for funding,” Punay said.

For the six-month pilot run of the project that would run in the second half of the year, Punay said the ADB extended $3 million.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian, last month, said the food stamps program itself could start in the first quarter of 2024.

Punay reiterated that “under discussions pa po kung paano popondohan next year (how it will be funded next year is still under discussions).”

The DSWD official said the government may include it in next year’s national budget.

Punay added that so far the program is still in the design stage.

The program, he said, targets to provide an allowance to at least one million “food poor” families or those earning less than P8,000 in a month to purchase a select list of food items from accredited local retailers. — DVM/VBL, GMA Integrated News