National Police chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Wednesday promised to help and provide protection to community pantry pioneer Ana Patricia Non who claimed to have received death and rape threats online from still unidentified persons.
Eleazar also encouraged Non to file a complaint at the nearest police station regarding these acts of harassment.
“Our police officers will immediately investigate this complaint to determine who is behind this,” he said in a statement.
He also urged Non to ask for help from the authorities.
He said in the investigation of the threats, authorities would look into all angles, including the previous red-tagging of Non, which she pointed out was the cause of the online harassment she has been receiving.
Eleazar said the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group could also help identify and track down Non’s harassers.
As this developed, Senator Grace Poe said that the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Education have almost P10 billion to put up “food pantries” to serve meals to millions of children in schools and day care centers this year.
If DSWD and DepEd will learn from the success of community pantries and partner with non-government organizations, Poe said the number of their beneficiaries of the child feeding programs could increase.
The senator said that partnerships with church groups, civil society, business associations, and local governments “will relieve teachers of non-teaching work, mobilize volunteers, and promote transparency in funds use.”
Under the 2021 national budget, the DSWD has P3.83 billion for its Supplemental Feeding Program that will cater to close to two million children in day care and early child care community facilities.
The DepEd, on the other hand, has P6 billion for its School-Based Feeding Program, which has a goal this year of feeding 1,775,349 children with nutritional deficiencies.
Poe said the suspension of in-school learning during the pandemic is posing many challenges in program implementation.
But to their credit, the DepEd and DSWD were able to deliver food to the intended beneficiaries last year despite the multiple lockdowns, with DSWD reporting some 1.7 beneficiaries served.
Poe urged the government to draw lessons from the community pantry phenomenon, “on how this admirable display of community solidarity can be harnessed for the welfare of children.
