THE House committee on basic education and culture is expected to approve in its next hearing the substitute bill to 13 proposals seeking to institutionalize the National School Feeding Program for public kindergarten and elementary pupils and appropriating funds for it.
During its recent hearing, members of the committee, chaired by Rep. Evelina G. Escudero (1st District, Sorsogon), agreed to finalize the draft substitute bill to include new points raised in their latest meeting.
Rep. Harry Roque expressed the urgency to expedite the approval of the proposal and its submission for plenary deliberations.
What is happening is a “scandal” as around six-million Filipinos suffer from acute malnutrition despite the availability of funding for a national feeding program, Roque said.
He added: “The figure of six million children afflicted with acute malnutrition mentioned by Rep. Suansing and the knowledge of the average of 57 percent absorptive capacity of government agencies, as far as expenditure of the national budget is concerned, is a scandal.
“That is why I enjoin this committee to immediately endorse this bill for plenary discussion because this simple act of having resources and allowing our children to be hungry should no longer continue.”
The draft substitute bill consolidated the following: House Bill 34 by Rep. Raul V. del Mar; HB 448 by Rep. Jose Christopher Y. Belmonte; HB 1764 by Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate; HB 1970 by Reps. Estrellita B. Suansing and Horacio P. Suansing, Jr.;
HB 2616 by Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali; HB 3070 by Rep. Marlyn L. Primicias-Agabas); HB 246 by Rep. Bellaflor J. Angara-Castillo; HB 1428 by Rep. Raul C. Tupas; HB 1438 by Rep. Salvador B. Belaro, Jr.; HB 1558 by Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte;
HB 2990 by Rep. Wes Gatchalian; HB 3276 by Rep. Harry L. Roque; HB 3371 by Rep. Maximo B. Rodriguez, Jr.; and HB 4038 by Rep. Salvador B. Belaro, Jr.
Suansing cited a 2012 report of the United Nations stating that an estimated six-million Filipino children were suffering from malnutrition, four million of whom were below the age of six.
“The enactment into law of the National School Feeding Program will ensure that children throughout their early childhood years receive adequate nutrition; improve survival rates attendance in schools; enhance the physical, social, cognitive, psychological and language development in young children; mitigate malnourishment; and establish an efficient system of early identification, prevention, referral and intervention of developmental disorders and disabilities in early childhood,” said Suansing.
Suansing said the passage of the National School Feeding Program bill would also strengthen the current programs of the national government, through the Department of Education and in cooperation with concerned agencies and attached offices.
Representatives of concerned agencies and offices such as the DepEd, National Dairy Authority, National Nutrition Council, Department of Science and Technology, and Department of Budget and Management’s Government Procurement Policy Board expressed support for the bill and assured their offices’ cooperation in the attainment of its vision.
Rep. Arnolfo A. Teves, Jr. (3rd District, Negros Oriental) stressed the importance of putting safeguards in the substitute bill to curb the possibility of corruption in the implementation of the program.
He cited similar unethical practices he had witnessed firsthand in the implementation of previous nutrition/feeding programs of the government.