Senator Grace Poe on Wednesday urged the government to implement a supplemental feeding program, saying hunger stalks millions of children due to the recent typhoons and the COVID-19 pandemic.
On her questioning during the deliberation on the proposed 2021 budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, it was revealed that at least P2.2 billion or 60 percent of the budget allocated for the program for this year had yet to be spent.
The Supplementary Feeding Program is one of the components of Republic Act 11037, or the Masustansyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino Act authored by Poe.
Implemented by the DSWD, the feeding program provides undernourished children aged three to five in day-care centers with one fortified meal for not less than 120 days in a year.
Poe said Children-beneficiaries used to receive food rations in day care centers in the past years.
But because of the pandemic and the recent calamities, she said, the food packs were also delivered to evacuation centers or directly to the homes of the kids with the help of the local government units.
Poe said the government should also maximize the use of ICT solutions into its programs to make the distribution of cash aid to the people more efficient and faster.
The use of mobile wallets, PayMaya, StarPay and the like would make it easier to give the beneficiaries the cash assistance instead of making them wait in long lines.
Poe said with the available funds, handing out the food ration to the children as mandated by law, and the cash aid to the families affected by the pandemic and the recent typhoons, should be systematic and fast, especially in times of urgent need.
Aside from the Supplementary Feeding Program, the two other components of RA 11037 are the School-Based Feeding Program and the Milk Feeding Program.
Carried out by the Department of Education, the SBFP provides undernourished children from Kindergarten to Grade 6 with at least one fortified meal for not less than 120 days a year.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Franklin Drilon lamented the failure of the DSWD to use around P83 billion from its budget in the face of a pandemic and the calamities that continue to hit the country, calling the non-disbursement of the fund “criminal.”
“To not distribute P83 billion to our affected countrymen in the face of all these difficulties is almost criminal,” Drilon said.
Senator Imee Marcos, who sponsored the budget of the agency, said there was around P83 billion unexpended from the past budgets given to the DSWD.
This happened while around 5-million Filipino families went hungry in the past three months while around 7.7 million Filipinos lost their jobs and livelihoods due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Drilon said.
Marcos and Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto also expressed dismay over the non-disbursement of the available funds.
Drilon’s questioning of the undisbursed P83 billion funding that could have helped Filipinos heavily affected by COVID-19 pandemic and the recent typhoons led to a proposal by Senator Francis Pangilinan for the Senate to pass a resolution urging the immediate disbursement of the unused funds. The senators agreed to pass the resolution.
Drilon also lamented the lack of a budget for the social amelioration program.