The Department of Health on Wednesday urged local government units (LGUs) to prioritize programs on disaster preparedness, public health promotion, and nutrition to combat persistent malnutrition across the country.
Key initiatives highlighted by the agency include emergency response training under the Health Emergency Management Bureau, stricter implementation of smoking and vaping bans via the Health Promotion Bureau, and expanded anti-stunting efforts by the National Nutrition Council.
These programs were featured during the 2025 National Mayors Forum and Nutrition Leadership and Governance Executive Masterclass, organized under the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP).
“Mayors, you are the guardians of the future. As your Secretary of Health, I have witnessed mayors who turned broken systems into working solutions, who refused to let poverty dictate destiny,” said Health Secretary Ted Herbosa.
Herbosa emphasized that nutrition is among the eight priority programs under the National Objectives for Health, with a goal of reducing stunting to 13.5 percent. Over 235 mayors and officials from the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of the Interior and Local Government participated in the event.
The initiative includes a leadership and governance program to train local officials in delivering maternal and child health services, particularly during a child’s first 1,000 days—a critical stage for physical and mental development.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, in support of Nutrition Month, also called on LGUs to intensify school and community feeding programs and to invest in long-term solutions such as livelihood support and access to essential nutrition services.
“Mobilizing LGUs to implement early childhood care and development (ECCD) systems, including nutrition-related programs, is crucial,” he said, stressing that the fight against illiteracy goes hand in hand with eradicating child malnutrition.
