Duterte signs 'First 1,000 Days' law

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law a measure meant to provide adequate health and nutrition services to mothers and to children during their early days of development.

Duterte signed Republic Act 11148, or the First 1,000 Days La, on November 29. A copy of the document was released to reporters on Monday, December 10.

The law requires the government to scale up nutrition intervention programs for infants and young children up to two-years-old, adolescent females, and pregnant and lactating women.

The measure also mandates the provision of vaccination, deworming, Vitamin A drops, and iron and food supplements to infants and women.

Those who reside in disaster prone areas, communities isolated due to distance, inaccessibility to transportation, areas identified to have high incidences of poverty and those belonging to vulnerable sector are prioritized in the measure.

The Department of Health, National Nutrition Council, Department of Agriculture, in coordination with other agencies and local government units, are mandated to formulate national nutrition policies and strategies for nutrition improvement.

The Senate approved the measure in last March, while the House of Representatives passed it in September last year.

Sen. Grace Poe, the measure’s co-author and co-sponsor in the upper house, called for an increase in the funding for the First 1,000 Days Iaw in its maiden year of implementation next year. — Gaea Katreena Cabico