Angara calls for genuine
Philippine school feeding program

In the advent of another 'DepEd rice scam', Senator Edgardo J. Angara today stressed that DSWD's 1.08 billion-peso allocation for rice distribution should be used exclusively for school feeding and not merely "rice dole-out".

"There is a duplication - and I have always pointed this out - in the funding for a school feeding program for children because another feeding program is being operated by the DSWD. On top of that, the government's so-called School Feeding Program merely involves giving a kilo of rice per pre-school and grade school pupil. But that is simple rice subsidy, not a real school feeding program," Angara said.

Angara was referring to a genuine school feeding program where the school children are given foods rich in carbohydrates, protein and calcium for the duration of a recommended period. Then, the children's significant improvements in height and weight, as well as attendance and academic performance, are recorded during and after the school feeding program.

"We know that we are always short of rice production. The rice hand-out will require the import of almost 750,000 metric tons of rice every year, on top of the 1.8 million-ton annual rice import valued at $550 million. This so called 'school feeding program' is a pure rice import scheme misusing the name of school children to enrich some favored foreign rice traders," Angara added.

"The problem of child malnutrition is entirely different from the problem of poverty. If one bureaucracy is going to address the churning stomachs of our young, then, to alleviate pangs of poverty among ordinary Filipinos must be left into the hands of another bureaucracy," Angara said.

It can be recalled that Angara earlier suggested that funds for school feeding program must be put into the hands of a single agency to achieve greater accountability and transparency.

Angara has been undertaking a pilot school feeding program for the past five years, giving milk, eggs and noodles to target Grades 1-3 pupil-beneficiaries over a 120-day feeding cycle. Significant improvement in weight, height, nutritional status, attendance rate and academic performance were observed in the students, and has effectively cut the malnutrition rate within the schools. To date, over 24,000 students have become recipients of the Angara School Feeding Program.