The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reiterated its commitment to ensure that all Filipinos are “free from hunger and poverty.”

In a statement issued Thursday, Nov. 2, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said that the agency’s vision free all Filipinos from hunger and poverty; have equal access to opportunities; and be enabled by a “fair, just, and peaceful society” is coupled with the mission to lead in the formulation, implementation, and coordination of social welfare and development policies and programs “for and with the poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged.”

DSWD reiterated this commitment after the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that nearly half or 48 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as poor during the third quarter of the year.

READ:

https://mb.com.ph/2023/11/1/more-filipino-families-consider-themselves-poor-in-q3-2023-sws

Conducted from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, the SWS survey estimates that around 13.2 million families consider themselves poor — higher than the 12.5 million estimated in June 2023.

Fight against hunger, poverty continues

As a response, Gatchalian noted that even before the result of the said SWS survey was released, President Marcos already instructed the agency to “come up with innovative programs” to combat and end hunger and poverty in the country.

Gatchalian noted that the instruction on the DSWD is hinged on the President’s “desire to end hunger and make a more inclusive country where no one is left behind.”

He noted that this is also the reason why the DSWD came up with the Food Stamp Program (FSP) which was “designed primarily to alleviate the lingering incidence of food poverty and malnutrition among low-income Filipino households through the provision of meal augmentation worth PHP 3,000 on a monthly basis.”

DSWD’s FSP is currently in its pilot run and the scale up of the program is slated for middle 2024.

DSWD noted that FSP will benefit a total of one million families who are classified as “food poor” based on the criteria and definitions set by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) alongside pregnant and nursing mothers.

The pilot areas include Tondo, Manila, and the regions of Cagayan Valley, Bicol, Caraga, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Budget for FSP

Gatchalian also mentioned that President Marcos has already approved the regular budget of the FSP for 2024 to ensure that one million “food poor” families will continue to benefit under the FSP’s meal augmentation program.

He added that that there is also the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) wherein 4.4 million “poorest of the poor” households or 20 million individuals continue to benefit from the program.

They receive monthly subsidies for their children’s education as well as monthly health subsidies, Gatchalian said.

He pointed out that the 4.4 million families benefiting from 4Ps plus the one million “food-poor” families under the FSP are expected to “push down further” the number of poor families in the coming months.

The target of bringing down the number of people rating themselves as “poor” Gatchalian said, is based on the “positive note” in the SWS survey showing that 25 percent of families rating themselves as “hindi mahirap” (not poor) is a three-point increase from the numbers in June.