The city government of Taguig on Tuesday assured the Department of Social Welfare and Development that the city is spending the P17.639-million fund from the agency intended for children under its daycare feeding program.
City officials made the assurance on the heels of reports that Taguig was among the cities in the country that failed to liquidate funds for the program.
The DSWD said that as of June, Manila topped its list with P47.480 million, followed by Cebu City with P23.432 million in unliquidated funds. Next is Iligan City with P20.502 million, and then Taguig.
But Taguig explained that the fund was “downloaded only last December 2016, and as of this date the same is being utilized to carry out the feeding program. Hence, it cannot yet liquidate the amount.”
Natividad Jimenez, head of Taguig’s Local School Board that is implementing the supplemental feeding for daycare students, disclosed that the bidding for the program would take about two months.
Since the funds were downloaded only last December, the program could only be implemented in February or March, by which time classes would be over. The end of classes would mean abbreviating the 120-day timeline of the feeding program, Jimenez said.
“Hence, it was decided by the Taguig City government with the concurrence of the DSWD’s coordinator for the program in the National Capital Region that the day care feeding program should be implemented beginning June 2017, in order to complete the 120-day program with the same set of beneficiaries,” she said.
Mayor Laarni Cayetano said Taguig should not only be home to children who are receiving quality education, but also to young ones who are protected and cared for.
The implementation of the feeding program in Taguig began on June 19, 2017, Jimenez said. So far, 135 daycare centers have benefitted from the ongoing program aimed at feeding 13,363 daycare students. Once the program is completed, “liquidation will be timely done,” she added.
The DSWD’s day care feeding program is only supplementary to the city government’s programs targeting daycare pupils. The City Health Office and City Nutrition Office for instance, hold a free yearly dental checkup for the children, and deworming every six months.
A Parents Effective Seminar is also being conducted by the city’s daycare workers twice a year. Under PES, the local government educates parents about what to feed their children so they can grow to be healthy individuals.
Because of the city’s aim to continue improving the health of residents, Taguig was awarded the prestigious Green Banner award by the National Nutrition Council-National Capital Region for three consecutive years from 2013 to 2015.
The Green Banner award is conferred to local government units that displayed outstanding performance in implementing its nutrition programs. This consistent performance to eliminate malnutrition in the city also handed Taguig City the CROWN Award in 2016.
The city is currently aiming for the NNC’s top award – the Nutrition Honor Award. This recognition is the highest award given by the NNC to the recipients of CROWN Award which managed to maintain quality nutrition program implementation for another three consecutive years.