Alarmed by the runaway prices of food, MAGSASAKA Party-list Rep. Robert Nazal plans to refile a measure that would provide a framework for the right of every Filipino to adequate food in order to help government respond to the problem.

Nazal said he is eyeing the refiling of a proposed framework that would help the government address the issues of food insecurity, increasing levels of hunger, and malnutrition.

“Now more than ever, food security is in the public’s eye with the recent surge in prices after a couple of years of pandemic. Indeed, rising prices and a still recovering economy serve as headwinds for our country’s fight for the right to adequate food,” he noted.

The neophyte solon cited the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, which showed that 11.6 percent of Filipino families or an estimated 2.9 million experienced hunger and not having anything to eat at least once during the second quarter of 2022. This number likely resulted from the Covid-triggered lockdowns during the past two years, the current war in Ukraine, the devaluation of the Philippine peso, growing population, and many other factors.

In its recently released discussion paper, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies or PIDS noted that “many Filipino households are unable to consume nutrient-adequate diets due to its unaffordability” and that “poorest households suffer food insecurity the most as evidenced by their low diet quality and high incidence of malnutrition".

Nazal said establishing the legal framework for the right to adequate food would serve to consolidate, harmonize or focus the different laws, policies and regulations—including Republic Act (RA) 8435 or the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997—to address and eliminate hunger in an organized manner.

“The target is that within a 10-year period, there shall be zero incidence of hunger in the country,” Nazal, noted agricultural entrepreneur, pointed out.

He said the bill would require all proposed government actions, plans and projects to take into account the right to adequate food, and mandating such to undergo impact assessment prior to implementation.

The measure would also provide for the conditions for the exercise of right to adequate food, freedom from hunger, non-discrimination, governing principles, standards on the amount of food, policies during emergencies, information dissemination, education and awareness program, international cooperation, monitoring and evaluation services, representations from people’s organization and civil society, as well as penalties for violations of the provisions of the bill.

Another key feature of the measure is the creation of a Commission on the Right to Adequate Food, which would be attached to the Office of the President.

First filed in the 16th Congress by then-Representatives Ibarra “Barry” Gutierrez, Walden Bello, Arlene “Kaka” Bag-ao and Jose Cristopher “Kit” Belmonte, the proposed “Right to Adequate Food Framework Act” was approved om the third and final readings in the succeeding Congresses.

“It is high time that this bill be approved again in this 19th Congress with the view of making it the much-needed framework law on the Filipinos’ right to adequate food,” Nazal said.

He noted that in January 2020, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger, created by virtue of Executive Order (EO) 101, was tasked to ensure that government policies, initiatives, and projects on attaining zero hunger will be “coordinated, responsive, and effective".

“Nonetheless, a legal framework is still necessary, practical and beneficial,” Nazal said.