The prognosis according to surveys is admittedly bleak.
At least one out of 10 Filipino families in the country experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.
This statement was based on the results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey which was taken from March 21 to 25. The poll showed that 14.2 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger, with 12.2 percent experiencing “moderate hunger” and 2 percent experiencing “severe hunger.”
This was higher than the results recorded in December 2023, in which 12.6 percent experienced involuntary hunger (11.2 percent for moderate hunger and 1.4 percent for severe hunger). It also marked the highest hunger rate since the 16.8 percent recorded in May 2021.
The SWS defines involuntary hunger as being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months. Moderate hunger refers to those who have experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times,” while severe hunger refers to those who have experienced it “often” or “always.”
The hunger rate increased significantly in the National Capital Region from 12.7 percent in December 2023 to 19 percent in the March 2024 survey, with moderate hunger rising from 9.7 percent to 14.3 percent and severe hunger growing from 3 percent to 4.7 percent.
Given this situation, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is undaunted. He has launched a whole-of-government approach to gain food security and proper nutrition in a bid to promote zero hunger and nutrition security in the Philippines under the administration’s Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.
In a two-page Memorandum Circular No. 47 signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on April 19, President Marcos directed all government agencies and urged all local government units (LGUs) to support the implementation of the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP) program.
The EPAHP is one of the banner programs of the Task Force on Zero Hunger, which aims to institutionalize efforts to mitigate hunger and promote food and nutrition security by linking Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to prospective markets and providing credit assistance to support food production, processing and distribution.
Fighting hunger and ensuring that millions of Filipinos have food on their tables is as much an emergency concern as fighting poverty is. Both hunger, malnutrition, and poverty may be remedied by the creation of more jobs and other livelihood sources in the economy. The citizens, however poor, do not want to be tied forever to dole-outs and “ayuda,” since if practiced for a long time, financial assistance by the government promotes laziness and dehumanizes the recipients.
Early in his term, at a Cabinet meeting in September 2022, PBBM directed several departments to craft a three-year Food Logistics Action Agenda aimed at revolutionizing the country's food distribution system. The order was specifically for the Departments of Agriculture, Trade and Industry, Transportation, Public Works and Highways, Information and Communications Technology, and the Interior and Local Government to develop a food logistics chain, cold chain industry, ports infrastructure, and farm-to-market roads.
This directive should have resulted by now in ongoing programs towards making many Filipinos gainfully employed, and thus able to feed their families.