Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto has warned officials to be ready with a good explanation why the proposed Department of Social Welfare and Development budget for feeding malnourished kids will be cut by P1 billion.
This developed even as Senator Grace Poe vowed to push for the final approval of funding the government’s feeding program included in next year’s proposed P3.767-trillion spending plan, as she said that the program was a form of a safety net for students suffering from malnutrition.
Under next year’s national budget, Recto said the funding for the “supplementary feeding” program, which caters to undernourished 3 to 5 years old, will go down from the current P4.42 billion to P3.42 billion.
“Is it a case of budgetary indigestion? Is the DSWD having too much on its plate? Is it due to the failure of local governments to submit financial reports? Whatever the reasons, for the sake of the children, let’s find ways to improve budget absorption,” Recto said.
The senator was referring to DSWD’s “seeming omnipresence in society, where one in four Filipinos, or 28.3 million, is a recipient of DSWD assistance, courtesy of its megabillion budget.”
One of its anchor projects, the feeding program, seeks to provide one nutritious meal a day for 120 days to 1.746 million 3 to 5 years old in poor communities.
Such intervention, Recto said, is necessary at a time when malnutrition kills 95 children a day, or 35,000 a year in the Philippines, and when 1 in 4 children under the age of 5 is underweight, and 3 in 10 are stunted.
Recto said he is optimistic that the Senate and the executive branch can explore ways on how to improve the implementation of this program “to include, for example, joint ventures with social action arms of corporations, aid agencies, and other nonprofits.”
“It’s also difficult on the part of the DSWD. It runs a big catering operation. Under its feeding program, they have to serve 209 million kiddie meals in a year,” Recto said.
“If there are manpower limitations, not only in this program but in others, then we should support DSWD in expanding its workforce. If the program is dragged down by complicated procurement rules, then let us liberalize them,” Recto said
But to its credit, the Duterte administration will increase by nearly P1.4 billion the budget of the Department of Education for its “school feeding program,” or from P3.93 billion this year to P5.3 billion in 2018, Recto said.
“If you combine the two, DepEd’s and DSWD’s, there’s a net increase of about P400 million. The combined outlay being P8.72 billion in 2018 compared to P8.36 billion this year,” Recto said.
The First 1000 Days initiative, Recto said gives critical care in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, from the mother’s womb to the child’s second birthday.
The government’s feeding program for children runs on two parallel tracks: DSWD takes care of “severely wasted and underweight” children in daycares or neighborhood play groups, while the DepED is in charge of children ages 6 to 11 or those in Grades 1 to 6.
Recto said the twin programs should not be bogged down by red tape.
There should be no repeat of the 2015 debacle, Recto said, when DepED delayed the release of P1.4 billion out of last year’s P2.4 billion in school feeding funds, transferring it to the regions only in Nov. 13, or when 2015 was about to end.
Meanwhile, Poe, a staunch advocate of free nutri-meals for students, said a total of P8.73 billion has been earmarked in 2018 to bankroll the feeding program that will cover all “severely wasted,” or those with chronic malnutrition, and “wasted” pupils in an effort to improve their nutritional status at the end of 120 feeding days and increase classroom attendance and performance.
The outlay, which is lower than last year’s P9.4 billion budget allocated for the Department of Education and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, consists of P5.3 billion under the DepEd and P3.43 billion under the DSWD.
The senator, co-sponsor of Senate Bill No. 1279 or An Act Creating a National School Feeding Program to Combat Hunger and Undernutrition for all Basic Education Students, said she will also ask DSWD officials why it had slashed its budget for the feeding program by almost P1 billion—from last year’s P4.43 billion—when the Senate deliberates the proposed spending plan of the agency. DepEd, meanwhile, raised its budget this year, from P4.98 billion last year.
Poe said legislative action is needed to ensure the program’s continuity and further expansion despite changes in administrations. Enacting the program into a law also ensures proper funding to accomplish the Philippines’ commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. As a result, no child gets left behind in both schooling and nutrition.
Under the measure, the DepEd, in coordination with the National Nutrition Council and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, shall prepare a menu to be served to all public basic education students. The menu needs to be drawn up according to age range, type of school, and local cultural eating preferences, within recommended standards. At least one-third of the daily nutritional requirement shall be provided based on the Philippine Dietary Reference Intake.
The feeding program shall also be complemented by nutritional programs such as “Gulayan sa Paaralan,” micronutrient supplementation and proper hygiene and sanitation.
An initial appropriation of P10 billion to be sourced from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the President’s Social Fund is allotted to implement the program for around 420,000 public schools all over the country.
“Ten billion pesos is a small price given the massive positive effect that can be achieved through this program,” Poe said.