Press Release
October 27, 2014

SUSTANSYA SA BATANG PILIPINO, NGAYON NA!
Privilege Speech of Sen. Grace Poe
October 27, 2014

October 16 was World Food Day. But for many Filipinos it was no food day as usual.

That would be hard to believe in a country getting glowing economic report cards and whose capital is brightened by blinding billboards advertising all kinds of food.

But the fact is millions of Filipinos go to bed, go to work, or go to school hungry.

A recent survey found that 43% or an estimated 9.3 million families considered the type of food they eat as "food-poor," marginally worse as compared to the previous quarter's survey.

Of this, three million individuals battled severe hunger, a condition of being "always" or "often" hungry.

Tinimbang ngunit kulang

Of course, there are those who believe that in gauging hunger, we should not give weight to mere perception. If that is the case, then let us use actual weights.

Last year we conducted the 8th National Nutrition Survey. Tinimbang po natin ang ating mga bata, at marami sa kanila ay kulang.

Dalawa sa bawat sampu na may gulang lima pababa ay kulang sa timbang.

Tatlo sa bawat sampu na may gulang anim hanggang sampu ay kulang naman sa tangkad.

At ang mas higit na nakababahala ay walo sa bawat isandaang bata na may edad sampu pababa ay tinatagurian nilang "wasted." O buto't balat at kasing liit ng bilog ng tansan ang kanilang mga braso.

In all, an estimated 7.36 million kids below the age of five are malnourished. Or about the total number of people who elbow their way into the crammed MRT coaches for two weeks.

The Food and Agriculture Organization or FAO gives a higher estimate - 15 million or bigger than the population of Metro Manila. UNICEF says globally, we rank 9th in the most number of stunted kids.

GNP - Gutom na Pilipino

Mr. President:

Hunger in this supposed time of economic growth is the paradox of our times.

Tumataas nga daw ang ating GDP, dumarami naman ang GNP - ang Gutom na Pilipino, isang terminong unang narinig ko kay Senator Recto.

But the irony is evident not just in official statistics but in our streets.

This is a country where skinny street kids share one bowl of instant noodles under the foot of neon ads selling liposuction for the obese.

This is a country where there is a fried or roasted chicken stand in every corner but the bestseller in the slums do not come in buckets but out of garbage cans - the pagpag double-fried chicken.

This is a country where steel skyscrapers seem to shoot up overnight while manhole covers are stolen in broad daylight to be bartered for food.

Scarcity amidst plenty

Kung ang datos ng pamahalaan ang pagbabasehan, katiting lang sana ang Gutom na Pilipino. Di ba't sagana tayo sa pagkain ayon sa estadistika?

100% ang ating self-sufficiency rate sa niyog, kamote, saging, asukal, gulay tulad ng repolyo at talong, isda tulad ng tilapia, bangus, galunggong, tuna, itlog ng manok, itik. Bagama't 97% tayong self-sufficient sa bigas, 96% sa mais, at 92% sa baboy at manok, naiaangkat naman natin ang kulang.

But if market shelves are full then why are cooking pots empty? If dashboard economic indicators brim with good numbers, then how come many cupboards are bare?

The answer to that is that while there is indeed food, not everyone has the money to buy it.

Today, a minimum wage worker in Cebu City must work 5 1/2 hours to buy a kilo of beef.

If a plantation worker in Negros wants to treat his family to tinolang manok, he will have to work a half day to buy 1 kilo of chicken.

Even ordinary food, the ones mentioned in the Bahay Kubo ditty are becoming too expensive for the minimum wager.

Halimbawa, pumalo ng P80 ang kilo ng ampalaya sa Naga noong nakaraang buwan. A worker there must work for 2 1/2 hours just to buy a kilo if he wants that ingredient for his pinakbet.

Magkano po ang galunggong ngayon? 120 ang kilo. Kung minimum wager ka sa Manila, kalahati ng sweldo mo sa umaga ay pambili lamang ng isang kilo ng GG.

At kung ikaw ay nasa probinsya at gusto mong bumili ng isang kilong bawang, kakayod ka ng buong araw para makabili lamang nito.

At ang nabanggit ko ay para sa may trabaho lamang. Paano doon sa wala or unemployed? O doon sa meron pero kakarampot lamang kasi pa-extra-extra lang, o underemployed? These two combined together account for 27% of the labor force.

Ulam substitutes

Kung walang pang-extra rice, extra tulog na lang.

Outside of slumber, others make do with ulam substitutes. The top five are soy sauce, the default viand of 23% of hungry Filipinos; followed by bagoong, the replacement meal of 15%; tomato, salt and coffee.

In one survey, 87% of households were found resorting to these cooking alternatives.

Today, one can conclude that many Filipinos are either on a forced diet or a Spartan diet - and the latter aptly describes the food intake of many of those who are considered to be food-secure.

Again let us look at the nutritional numbers of the Filipino the way we look at nutritional labels of food.

12-peso budget meal

The 2012 Full Year Official Poverty Statistics pegs poverty incidence at 19.7%. If we replace the percent with people, roughly 4.2 million of our countrymen live below the poverty line.

To stay above the poverty line, the 2012 Full Year Official Poverty Statistics computes that a family of five must have P7,890 a month to meet basic needs, of which, P5,513 is for basic food.

P5,513 translates to 184 pesos a day for a family of five. Or 36 pesos per day per person. Or 12 pesos per meal a person.

Sino kayang restoran ang nag-o-offer ng 12 pesos na budget meal? Even by Bilibid standards - which has a P50 a day food budget per inmate - isn't enough.

And any homemaker who can whip up a nutritious, filling meal for P12 should win the Nobel Prize for kitchenomics.

Pero ginawan po ito ng sample meal ng ating pamahalaan. Kasya daw ang 36 pesos sa isang agahan na may pritong itlog, kanin at kape; tanghalian na kinatatampukan ng isang kurot na dilis, isang tasa ng ginisang monggo , kanin at saging; hapunan na starring ang isang hiwa ng pritong tulingan, halabos na kangkong at kanin uli.

The above supposedly meets the daily recommended energy and nutrient intake of about 2,000 calories.

All for 36 pesos a day. Ayon sa pamahalaan. Na resulta ng isang eksperimento. Hindi bahay-bahayan.

At dahil sa ganoong sample meal, maraming nakatakas sa opisyal na klasipikasyon na mahirap sila. Bumababa ang bilang ng food hungry.

Even if we factor in inflation, and adjust the 12-peso per meal benchmark to, say, 16 pesos, then it would take a kitchen wizard, an Iron Cheap, to devise a meal plan around that cost parameter.

And a people who had taken to Instagramming their meal before eating it would find it hard to whip one at that price too.

By the way, bilang maliit na impormasyon, noong Huwebes, together with Ambassador Amad Ahsif of the United Kingdom, we went to Philippine Christian Foundation (PCF) School sa Balut, Tondo, Manila.

Ang paaralan ay recipient ng tulong mula sa UK at ilang pribadong kumpanya na nagpapatupad ng feeding program para sa mga batang taga-Smokey Mountain at mahihirap na batang taga-Maynila at kalapit-bayan tulad ng Malabon, Caloocan at Navotas. 39 pesos naman ang budget para sa bawat bata - agahan at tanghalian ang kasamang pagkain sa pag-aaral, mula Lunes hanggang Biyernes. Bilang sample ng kanilang nutritious breakfast at lunch, lugaw with tuna sa umaga at picadillo, rice at papaya on Thursdays; at pag Biyernes, cereals at milk sa agahan at adobong chicken, gulay, rice at minsan, maliit na mansanas for lunch.

Ang maganda sa kwentong ito ng feeding program ng UK, private sector partners at PCF, ayon sa kanilang pag-aaral: marami ang nahihikayat na pumasok sa eskwela at bumababa ang antas ng gutom. Sabi nila, sa halimbawang bilang na 100 mag-aaral na halos malnourished sa unang buwan ng pagpasok (Hunyo, sa kalendaryo ng paaralan), 66 pupils ang bumubuti ang pangangatawan pagkatapos ng anim na buwan o sa Nobyembre ng nasabing school year.

Halos 100% din ang attendance rate sa klase at ang national testing scores ng mga bata ay mas mataas pa sa pinaka-mayaman na mga syudad sa bansa.

But as in any social problem, hunger, like war, punishes the children most.

Missing meals, skipping class

It retards motor development. It stunts cognitive skills. As a result, those who weigh less, score low in test and learn less than their classmates.

A child who frequently misses a meal is likely to miss a class. Those whose weights have dropped are prone to dropping out of school.

In a recent study by PIDS, 5.5 million out of 13.4 million of poor children below 18 were forced to look for jobs, to become "rice winners."

And this has a long-term negative impact on the development of our human capital. We cannot build the foundation of our future on emaciated bodies who are no longer in school. No nation on earth can.

Even wealthy nations with much higher per capita like the UK has institutionalized a free meal program for the early school years of their children. We, who are averse to dole outs or subsidies perhaps should tell ourselves that this is an investment for the future. Countries like the UK and many wealthy countries have recognized this development inducing program early on. Look at how far they've gone.

Budget space for empty stomachs

Mr. President:

In order for our children to attain their dreams, we must put food within their reach.

Next month, we will be debating the 2.6 trillion peso national budget for 2015.

Let me put it bluntly: It is child-nutrient deficient. It needs to be fortified with more funds to combat malnutrition directly.

Despite the scope of child malnutrition, we are allocating 1.3 billion to DepEd so it can serve occasional meals to 530,000 severely wasted children, a fraction of the underweight, the wasted, and the stunted.

Over at the DWSD, the proposed allocation is 3.3 billion pesos for a supplementary feeding program for 2 million children in daycare.

These two items combine for P4.6 billion or a microscopic 1/ 530th of the total budget next year.

The budget per meal in the DWSD program is about 13 pesos and 60 centavos. The DepEd program allocates 16 pesos per child. Both are still below the Bilibid budget meal price tag of P50 a day.

Surely we can raise the meal budget for our kids to national penitentiary standards.

Let us then create budget space for programs that will fill the empty stomachs of our young. I will not enumerate them, but the proposed budget is littered with frivolous programs we can do without.

We can put some agencies, or at least their programs, on a diet so that our children who are hungry for learning but are too weak from hunger to attend school can eat.

If funds would warrant, let's include pregnant mothers at risk.

A World Food Program study shows that the most crucial period in the development of the child's brain is the first 1,000 days from conception.

Kasi kung gutom ang nanay habang buntis, hindi nabubuo ng mabuti ang utak ng isang sangol. Malnutrition begins at the womb. Here is an example of a stunted brain of a child in the womb of a mother who has not received proper nutrition.

If brain synapses are not formed properly, no amount of post-birth intervention will reverse the situation.

200 babies per hour

Ginoong Pangulo:

Hindi ko naman sinasabi na ang tanging solusyon sa kakulangan ng pagkain ay gawing buong kusina ang pamahalaan.

Turning the bureaucracy into one big commissary will not end hunger. Only by ramping up the nation's food production can.

It is time to stop cooking up gimmicks which portray a land of bountiful food.

The proof of a successful agriculture program is in the eating, and not in tarpaulins.

On irrigation, for example, only 55%, or about 1.67 million hectares out of the potentially-irrigable area of 3 million hectares are serviced by irrigation.

Yet for 2015, our measly target is to bring irrigation to a paltry 26,155 hectares for the first time.

At this pace, it will take us half a century to develop our full irrigation potential.

26,000 hectares of newly irrigated lands a year is way below the 84,000 hectares that we need to open to irrigation every year just to cope with population growth.

You see we are growing by 1.76 million a year. Every hour, 200 babies are born into this postage-stamp size country of ours.

How much we eat

Because rice is our staple; each of us consumes an average 117 kilos of rice a year So annually, we have to boost our rice output by 208,000 metric tons and rice is one crop that can only grow with water and not through hot air as some DA officials are trying to do.

At iyan po ay sa bigas lamang. The consumption trend I cited earlier refers to a few minimum Philippine standards. If it disclosed something more, it is our consumption deficit in some vital ingredients in the food chart. In vegetables alone, WHO recommends a per capita consumption of 140 kilos.

Investing in agriculture

But we can't produce more food it we don't invest more in agriculture.

And the irony is that the supposed frontlines in the war against hunger are the first casualties of the enemy they are trying to defeat.

43 in every 100 fishermen are poor. Among farmers, the prevalence is 41 in every hundred.

Kaya nga po minsan nang naitanong na kung sino pa ang mangingisda ay sya pang walang perang pambili ng sardinas.

O kung bakit ang nagtatanim ng palay ay nangungutang ng pera pambili ng instant noodles.

O kung bakit minsan ang magniniyog ay di makabili ng isang kutsarang mantika.

For 2015, we are appropriating 88.8 billion pesos for agriculture. We should ensure that most of the funds will go to farmers, in time, in full, for the right project, at the right place, and the right price.

We should adopt a Google-earth program in which farm projects are geo-tagged per location, per project, per cost.

It is not enough that we can observe biddings. We need an eye in the sky. In this regard, I will push for a provision in the national budget that the status of all projects related to food and feeding can be accessed through the click of a mouse.

A national civic project

But an enduring myth in the war against hunger and the campaign to grow more food is that both are always exclusive government productions.

Nothing can be more wrong.

Food production is always a national civic project. Bagamat malaki ang kanilang papel, hindi po dapat iasa ng buo sa pamahalaan ang laban sa kagutuman.

Bilang mamamayan, meron din tayong papel na dapat gampanan.

As there is no magic crop that can end hunger so is there no single project that can slay malnutrition.

In our individual capacity - because who says that one should be in public office to do public good - we can do our share

First, we shouldn't allow the applause of rating agencies drown out the grumbling of empty stomachs.

We should let the issue of hunger gnaw at bureaucracy's thick walls or the officialdom's thick hides the way an ulcer lacerates the gut.

Kotong cops

Busting hunger and boosting food production require no Magna Carta but they consist of small deeds which can go a long way and which taken together can make a great difference.

For example, stopping kotong cops from mulcting on the magbubuko or the byaheros of baboy will reduce the cost of food. At present transport - and traffic - costs double farmgate prices

So does removing the regulatory roadblocks because today it is cheaper to ship corn from Minnesota than from Mindanao.

Government can bulk-buy fertilizers and leverage its purchasing muscle into lower prices for this important farm input.

When we do buy cheap price from abroad, bulk should be earmarked for the consumption of the poor. It should line their stomachs not the pockets of traders.

We should ask government to promote urban gardening and use the vacant lots it owns as showcases of what can be done and nurseries of what can be planted.

No water, no food

We can ask government to start a lease-to-own program for farm implements.

We spend 3 billion pesos a year on the National Greening Program. We should insist that some of the species planted are fruit-bearing. This will bring down our huge fruit import bill.

Because the beginning of food security is land security, then government should respect the food growers' right to land. Minsan po kasi ang dahilan kung bakit maraming nagugutom ay hindi pagkain ang kulang, kundi katarungan.

Having done all of this hectoring, let us practice what we preach.

If we live in an affluent village, let us start a food bank and give this to people on the other side of the fence.

If we own a restaurant, we can arrange for banquet or buffet leftovers delivered to various soup or school kitchens.

If you are a politico, resist the temptation of using outsized tarpaulins as outdoor Hallmark greeting cards. Instead, donate these as drying mats for rice, coffee, corn, coconut, cacao farmers.

The same challenge goes to owners of those gigantic EDSA billboards. Donate your used tarpaulins to farmers. Trust me, an upright commercial advertising tarp will do more by lying horizontal.

If you have a child in school, lobby for the establishment of vegetable gardens.

If your class will have a reunion, instead of soliciting tens of lechons, why not use the money instead to start a pig dispersal program and in the process save yourself from buying a fistful of Lipitor.

If you own a corporation, then reorient your CSR towards hunger mitigation projects.

Sabi ko nga po, marami po tayong pwedeng gawin.

Working together for the bill

Tayo bilang isang institusyon, pwede nating ipasa ang mga batas na palalakasin at palalawakin ang school-feeding. Ito ang Sustansya sa Batang Pilipino Act o SB 79. Ako ay nagpapasalamat kay Sen. Pia at itinulak nya ito sa kanyang komite. Sen. Angara also has a similar measure to feed our school children. Sana po ay matulungan ninyo na maipasa ito agad At maging batas na ang libreng pananghalian para sa mga bata sa ating mga public schools.

Napakahalaga nito.

In a recently concluded World Economic Forum hosted here in our country, an economic expert said that our greatest advantages are the following:

1. Our untapped natural resources;
2. Our strong consumerism and
3. Our young population.

Shouldn't we ensure that our children are given all the opportunities to reach their full potential and be high achievers? Would that not be an advantage to us all? The very basic need we need to provide them is food.

Buhayin din natin ang corporate farming na nakapaloob sa SB 2089.

Hikayatin natin ang ating mga kababayan na bumalik sa agrikultura sa pamamagitan ng mga incentives na ibinabandila ng SB 1282.

There is the alarming greying of Philippine agriculture. The average farmer is one who is four years away from getting a senior citizen's card.

Let us pass the National Land Use Act too.

Mr. President, dear colleagues:

In 20 months, this present Senate will bow out of office. Some of us here will face the electorate and hope for a renewed mandate.

But all of us will face the evaluation of history and hope that its judgement will be fair and that we will be remembered fondly.

Our chances of being received kindly, in both history books and voting booths will be high if we will be remembered as the Senate that declared war against hunger and passed the most number of food security laws.

Yan din naman kasi ang hiling ng taumbayan. Sa huling survey ng PulseAsia , negative 24 % ang grado ng pamahalaan sa pagsugpo sa tumataas na presyo ng bilihin, negative 13 sa paglaban sa kahirapan, at negative 8 sa pag-angat ng kita ng manggawa.

Yan ang tatlong tampok na isyu kay Juan de la Cruz.

Gaya ng sinabi dati ng tatay ko, ALTANGHAP pa rin ang suliranin ng ordinaryong tao sa kasalukuyan: Almusal, Tanghalian at Hapunan.

Mr. President, our efforts to improve and expand infrastructure projects are vital. Fighting corruption in government is crucial. Achieving lasting peace in Mindanao is necessary. But let us not forget the greatest resource of our country - our people especially our children. Kailangan natin bigyan ng sapat na pagkain ang mga bata para maharap nila ang hamon ng kinabukasan at maisakatuparan nila ang pangarap nating maging tunay na masagana at dakila ang ating bayan.

If people will remember us in the future even faintly as the batch who did not feed them rhetoric but put food on their table, then we can tell ourselves that our time here was indeed well spent.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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