Rody urged to address hunger, poverty

MANILA, Philippines – What about hunger and other problems?

Two senators urged the Duterte administration yesterday to also launch an all-out war against hunger and poverty in the country and not just focus on the illegal drug problem.

Sen. Grace Poe said an intensified campaign against hunger could be done by institutionalizing reforms that would reach the grassroots level.

“If it is important for us to fight or to wage a war against drugs, we need even more so to wage a war against hunger. I am appealing that we end hunger with the same vigor as the fight against drugs,” Poe said during a summit at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian echoed his colleague’s sentiment, saying that the fight against poverty and hunger should go hand-in-hand with the current war against drugs.

“Of course there is room, you can fight multiple wars. This war should be continued, it might not be as efficient. This was started already. We have some feeding programs, CCT (conditional cash transfer program), so these must be continued. Let’s fine-tune (them) as we go along the way,” he said.

Gatchalian said the national government should look at the best practices of Southeast Asian neighbors, particularly citing Vietnam.

Poe said solving hunger should be prioritized by the government as the problem had been placed on the back burner by previous administrations.

“The problem is it has never been a priority for any administration and I am not just saying this one. I think if we focus our efforts into it, there shouldn’t be any problems, we can alleviate or even eliminate hunger in the country,” she said in an interview.

Although she supports the government’s campaign against illegal drugs and criminality, Poe expressed belief solving hunger should be “more of a priority” due to the sheer number of affected Filipinos.

Poe cited a Social Weather Stations Survey during the first quarter of the year showing there were 3.1 million families, or about 16 million individuals still experiencing hunger.

Out of the 16 million, 621,000 families experienced severe hunger in the past three months.

This number increased to 3.4 million families for the second quarter, according to the latest SWS poll released last August.

Gatchalian also said the hunger problem in the country was second highest in ASEAN.

The two senators have respectively filed bills seeking to solve hunger in the country, which include giving free lunch to all public students, first 1,000 days assistance for newborns, and the Nutri-Skwela Act to address the nutritional and dietary needs of young students.