50% hunger rate reduction remains Duterte admin's main goal –Nograles

Published January 24, 2021 02:23 PM By ERWIN COLCOL,GMA News

President Rodrigo Duterte's administration still sets its eyes on reducing the hunger rate in the country by half, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Sunday amid reports of rising prices of basic commodities.

Nograles, who heads the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger, told Dobol B sa News TV that the government failed to conduct its Expanded National Nutrition Survey for 2020 due to health protocols attendant to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But instead, he said, the government will be using data from the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey result as a basis for the next steps it will take to address hunger.

Nograles said the results of the November 2020 survey of the SWS showed that hunger rate in the country had gone down to 16% from a high of 30% in September that year.

"Kami ngayon sa Task Force Zero Hunger, ang tinitingnan natin, kung SWS survey ang ating basis, mula sa 16% sa kasalukuyan, ang gusto nating gawin ay mabalik siya sa dating 8% dahil nagawa na natin ito noong last quarter ng 2019 bago dumating ang COVID," Nograles said.

"Pero before that, yung SWS survey natin nasa 8%, ngayon nasa 16% kaya kailangan mangalahati pa ito. Ito ang inaasahan natin na sana magawa namin sa pamamagitan ng mga programang nakalaan at nakaprograma na sa Task Force Zero Hunger," he added.

Food prices in Metro Manila markets are on the rise

because food supply had dropped due to the series of lockdowns and successive typhoons, among other factors.

To address this, Nograles said the government is currently taking steps to ensure that food supply in the country is enough to meet public demand, which in turn would stabilize prices.

For one, he said the Department of Agriculture is looking into imposing a price cap of prices of pork.

The department is also finding ways to get pork supplies from areas not affected by African swine flu, he added.

Meanwhile, the government is striving to keep the prices of poultry at the minimum as this could be an alternative source of protein, said Nograles.

He added that the Task Force Zero Hunger is considering launching a massive campaign to promote urban and community gardening to ensure sufficient supply of vegetables.

Senator Francis Pangilinan earlier expressed concern over the continuing increase of prices of commodities in the market.

He wants the Senate to look into the rising food prices in the country to determine needed interventions to ensure people’s access to adequate and affordable food.

“Sa gitna ng isang pandemyang nag-alis na mga hanapbuhay ng milyon-milyong mga kababayan natin, seryosong tanong: Ano ang mabibili ng 500 pesos mo?” Pangilinan asked. —LBG, GMA News

View on GMA News