More than a year of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, various women's groups launched a "survival" cookbook featuring peasant women and mothers' recipes of coping up with dwindling household incomes and rising food prices.

The Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women, Rural Women Advocates (RUWA) and all-Filipina independent publisher Gantala Press launched "Lutong Gipit: Mga Recipe sa Panahon ng Krisis" featuring recipes from peasant women and mothers from Cavite, Laguna, Iloilo, and Rizal.

"The farmers' families are very hungry and until now Duterte has no concrete solution to solve it. The majority of farmers receive little to no assistance. Most of them only eat once or twice a day or sometimes nothing at all," Amihan National Chairpersons Zenaida Soriano said.

Amihan said the book highlighted the plight of poor peasant families and the struggle for a three-day meal day due to loss of livelihood and increasing prices of basic commodities.

A Social Weather Station (SWS) hunger survey in September 2020 showed that 30.7 percent of Filipino families experienced hunger and 8.7 percent suffered severe hunger -- the highest levels recorded in 20 years.

Call for production subsidy and social amelioration

The groups reiterated their calls for the P15,000 production subsidy and P10,000 social amelioration.

"The cash aid will be a big help to meet the food expenses and other needs of farmers' families. Farmers can also return to farming if the production subsidy is given," Soriano added.

"The launching of 'Lutong Gipit' is part of Amihan's campaign to encourage various sectors to support the peasant women and their families in their advancement of rights to land, food, and livelihood. Ultimately, to hold Duterte regime accountable for socio-economic crisis experienced by our 'food producers'."