Students from Bagong Ilog Elementary School present their visual map of food advertisements they encounter on the road to school as part of the Weight a Minute, Galaw Bulilit NutriCamp activity held on December 2, 2025, to spark conversations on how marketing shapes children’s food choices.
The Healthy Food Environment (HFE) Coalition is urging Pasig City officials to uphold City Ordinance No. 20, s. 2025, a landmark policy that bans unhealthy food and beverage advertising in schools and other child-centered spaces. The group warns that moves to suspend the measure would undermine critical protections for children at a time when unhealthy marketing remains pervasive and childhood obesity continues to rise.
During a recent NutriCamp activity, students from Bagong Ilog Elementary School presented a visual map of the food advertisements they encounter on their daily commute—an exercise meant to highlight how marketing shapes young people’s food choices and underscores why protective policies are urgently needed.
Despite being praised as a progressive stride toward safeguarding children’s health and rights, the ordinance has come under pressure from food industry representatives who have asked city officials to reconsider its provisions. The City Council is now set to deliberate on Proposed Ordinance No. 72-2025, which seeks to suspend implementation of the measure. Public health advocates warn that any delay would set back years of efforts to address childhood obesity and allow aggressive junk food marketing to continue unchecked.
Atty. Sophia San Luis of ImagineLaw, secretariat of the HFE Coalition, said the ordinance reflects a commitment to Pasigueño families that children’s learning and play spaces will remain free from manipulative advertising tactics. She stressed that suspending or weakening the policy would place corporate interests above children’s health and long-term well-being.
The coalition emphasized that the ordinance directly responds to alarming trends. National data show one in seven Filipino school-aged children is overweight or obese, a condition linked in part to constant exposure to unhealthy food marketing. In Pasig City alone, 21.6 percent of children aged 5 to 10 were recorded as overweight or obese in the 2021 National Nutrition Survey. While the city has programs like the Weight a Minute, Galaw Bulilit NutriCamp to encourage healthier habits, the coalition noted that children cannot change outcomes on their own without an environment that supports healthy choices.
Ordinance No. 20 builds on Pasig’s earlier 2017 Healthy Food and Beverage Ordinance, strengthening rules and enforcement mechanisms to ensure children are not subjected to targeted junk food advertising. Health and child rights organizations have also thrown their support behind the measure, saying it aligns with global best practices. Chile, for example, saw improvements in children’s diets and reduced exposure to harmful advertising after implementing similar restrictions.
Dr. Rodney Jimenez of the Philippine Heart Association underscored that unhealthy habits formed in childhood pave the way for chronic diseases later in life. He emphasized that Pasig’s ordinance is designed to shield children from these risks and called for its full implementation. Child Rights Network convenor Aurora O. Quilala added that the measure advances children’s rights to nutritious food and the highest attainable standard of health.
The coalition is appealing to the Pasig City Council and the Mayor’s Office to uphold and implement the ordinance without delay, reject calls for suspension or dilution, and affirm Pasig’s leadership in promoting healthier food environments. San Luis noted that the fears raised by industry are speculative, especially as implementing guidelines have yet to be released, while the health threats facing Pasig’s children are both immediate and measurable.
The coalition maintains that Pasig now stands at a crucial juncture—one where the city can demonstrate that protecting children’s health remains a priority that cannot be bargained away.