The committee on poverty alleviation of the House of Representatives will convene a summit on malnutrition and child stunting shortly after Congress starts its second regular session this week..
“We want to address these interconnected problems, along with hunger and poverty, and recommend solutions. We intend to give them top priority,” 1-Pacman Rep. Mikee Romero, the panel’s chairperson, disclosed on Saturday.
He said proper nutrition has a big and long-lasting impact on child growth and health, and even on budget allocation and national development.
“If we have a large number of malnourished children, that would require a bigger budgetary appropriation for healthcare and health facilities, depriving other social services like education and infrastructure of much-needed funding,” he said.
Malnutrition and child stunting also hinder national development and competitiveness, especially in the digital age, he stressed.
Romero added that his committee intends to invite all concerned
government agencies starting with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Health, private sector groups, including the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), and other stakeholders.
“We want to come up with a holistic approach to solving malnutrition and child development stunting, and of course to poverty, which is the underlying problem,” he said.
The MAP recently urged the government to put these problems on top of the national agenda.
“Of course, these are among the top priorities of both the executive and legislative branches of our government. The food stamps program of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. aims to ease hunger and malnutrition among our poor children and population,” Romero said.