Family Week is being celebrated this week to underline the importance of the family in Filipino life. Our Constitution provides in Article XV: “The State recognizes the Filipino family as the foundation of the nation.” Hence, the government is committed to “fortify solidarity in the family and work for its total development.”
Today, workers in offices in the executive branch will pause from their duties to pave the way for activities associated with this observance. Also today, as in every fourth Monday of September each year, Kainang Pamilya Mahalaga (Significance of Family Meal) Day will be marked. Truly, being together at the meal table is a vital aspect of family bonding. It is an occasion for sharing the food that symbolizes the fruits of their combined endeavors to live healthy and meaningful lives.
It was in 1992 that then President Fidel V. Ramos issued Proclamation No. 60 declaring the fourth week of September every year as Family Week. Twenty years later, then President Benigno S. Aquino III signed Proclamation No. 360, declaring the fourth Monday in September as Kainang Pamilya Mahalaga Day.
Since then, the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology has been issuing Nutrition Guidelines for Filipinos to ensure the intake of the optimum combination of foods needed to get the nutrients essential for health and wellness.
Lately, there has been some spirited public discussion on the sufficiency of such dietary prescriptions, with advocates of a living wage weighing in on the need for government to ensure that workers receive compensation that ensures the right amount and the right quality of family nutrition.
Shelter is also a fundamental family need. The Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program, also known as the 4PH Program, is the national housing program of the Philippines. It was launched in September 2022 with the goal of having zero informal settlers by 2028. Recently, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) has flagged the need to make available government-owned and public lands commensurate to the number of socialized housing units being targeted for construction.
The twin observances of Family Week and Kainang Pamilya Mahalaga should spur our government leaders in all three branches — executive, legislative, and judiciary — to intensify their efforts in ensuring not just sufficiency of nutrition, but to enhance the total well-being of every Filipino family.
Beyond ensuring physical health and material sufficiency, it is also imperative to consider the aspect of equal opportunity and social justice for all. Recent legislation on guarantees toward attainment of universal health care and free college education exemplify this concern. These expand the frontiers of inclusion beyond what has been institutionalized previously through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
Moreover, the Supreme Court has launched a five-year Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI) that includes programs to ensure the delivery of justice real-time that seeps through the grassroots of the nation.
Indeed, the Filipino family is the bedrock of national solidarity. Sustainable growth and development should be mirrored in the quality of life of Filipino families.