Wiping out hunger in the country is not an easy task to do, according to President Duterte.
Any poll candidate might try to promise resolve the problem of hunger but when elected president, the official would realize this would be a daunting challenge, the President recently admitted.
"Ito pabalik-balik ‘to. Lahat ng taga-gobyerno every --- lalo na every election, ‘Ang gutom, maraming gutom.' Pero pagdating, oo marami ngang gutom tapos ‘pag presidente ka na, maraming gutom, 98 percent ng Pilipino gutom, pobre (This is back and forth. All those in government, especially every election, would say many people are hungry. But once you are the president, many are indeed hungry. Ninety-eight percent of Filipinos are hungry, poor)," Duterte said during a visit to Tacloban City, Leyte Thursday, March 18.
"Sige, pakainin mo (Go ahead, try to feed them). Easier said than done," he added in a sharp tone.
The President mentioned the difficult task of fighting hunger while discussing government's development programs for barangays cleared of influence of armed communist rebels. Duterte was in Tacloban last week to attend the meeting of national and local government officials on efforts to end the local armed communist conflict in Eastern Visayas.
"We are working hard to ensure the provision of various services and public utilities through BDP (Barangay Development Program) such as the creation of farm-to-market roads, school buildings, water and sanitation," Duterte said.
In January last year, the President formed an an inter-agency task force to craft a national food policy to address hunger and malnutrition in the country. Duterte, in Executive Order No. 101, recognized that involuntary hunger, food security, undernutrition and child wasting, stunting and mortality continued to be serious concerns in the country.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, chair of the inter-agency task force on zero hunger, previously acknowledged more needs to be done to attain to zero hunger goal by 2030 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But he assured the nation the government remained committed to sustain food security and improve nutrition in the country.
The government has already launched a "National Food Policy" that includes initiatives for ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.
A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, conducted last November, showed that 16 percent or around 4 million families experienced involuntary hunger or hunger due to lack of food at least once in the past three months. The hunger level was lower than 30.7 percent or around 7.6 million families recorded in September.
The hunger incidence rate, however, is higher than the pre-pandemic level 8.8 percent or 2.1 million in December 2019.