Marcos OK’d pilot run of food stamp program — DSWD’s Gatchalian

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has approved the pilot run and the implementation of the government's food stamp program.

This was announced by Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian during a Palace press briefing on Tuesday.

"The President approved the run of the pilot, which is fully-funded through grants... grants from the ADB (Asian Development Bank), JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and the French Development Agency. So that will be $3 million all in all," Gatchalian said.

"There is a provision to expand it. ADB is still working on other trust funds so that we could expand the pilot. But other than that, it's all green lights go na for the pilot which will take place shortly," he added.

Gatchalian said the President wants to include single parent, the pregnant and lactating mothers in the program to also address the stunting problem in the country.

"The President also wants to bring in pregnant, lactating mothers kasi we have to start looking at stunting in this country and the first 1,000 days program is very important," Gatchalian said.

"Ang marching order ng Pangulo dapat malabanan natin ang stunting at ang kagutuman, pagsanib-pwersa ng mga iba't-ibang programa ng gobyerno, para hindi sila piece by piece ang turing sa mga programa," he added.

[The marching order of the President is we fight stunting and hunger, joint efforts of other programs of the government.]

For his part, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said the food in this program should be of nutritional value.

"It actually jives, the poorest one million... be able to give them food stamps so that they will have nutritious food," Herbosa said.

According to Herbosa, the stunting rates are 21.6% for ages 0 to 23-months-old, or one in five children, and 28.7% for those under five-years-old.

Herbosa said he is targeting to slash the number of those stunted by 50%.

"So, mag-uusap kami ni Secretary Rex, we’ll of course promise what is doable kasi depende iyan pilot pa lang tayo but if you ask me, I want to hit 50% of that [unclear] decrease para talagang pababa and then hindi mo naman masi-zero iyan eh kasi there will [be] hard to reach areas," Herbosa said.

(Secretary Rex and I will talk. We will of course promise what is doable because it depends since we are still on the pilot stage. But if you ask me, I want to hit 50% of that decrease to lower it and you cannot hit zero because there will be hard to reach areas.)

The DSWD said the project aims to provide assistance to targeted households to address involuntary hunger in the country.

Earlier, the agency explained that 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. 

Gatchalian also said the DSWD would work with the Department of Agriculture to bring more of the local produce. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News