Malacañang: New Agriculture chief’s program to address hunger

Malacañang on Monday said it is addressing the "increased hunger" in the country.

"[Agriculture] Secretary [Manny] Piñol has a program--I forget the title of it--but it is some sort of a feeding program, which symbolically begins to address the fact that the people are hungry, many people are hungry," presidential spokesperson Ernesto "Ernie" Abella said in a press briefing.

A Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll said the total hunger rate has increased to 13.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016 from 11.7 percent in the last quarter of 2015.

Abella said the Department of Social Welfare and Development and "the clusters" of Duterte's Cabinet are also helping addressing the problem.

Piñol had said that Duterte wanted him to address food security, especially after the country had just experienced the hottest El Niño the past year and now bracing for the effects of the La Niña phenomenon.

On his first night as the 16th President of the Philippines, Duterte hosted a "solidarity dinner" with poor families at the Delpan Sports Complex in Tondo, Manila and distributed food packs.

In his speech, he shared his anti-poverty plans such as providing education and health benefits for all.

Duterte also released an executive order, creating an anti-poverty cluster composed of 12 agencies supervised by Secretary to the Cabinet Leoncio "Jun" Evasco. —ALG, GMA News