Press Release
May 9, 2008

ROXAS TO GOV'T: MAINTAIN FOOD-FOR-SCHOOL PROGRAM

Senator Mar Roxas called on the government to maintain the Department of Education's Food-for-School Program.

"The food-for-school program has been successful in reducing drop-out rates among school children. It is extremely worrisome that the rice crisis now poses a direct threat to the viability of this education program," Roxas said.

"The early education years are a crucial time for youths, and we have to exert effort to ensure that students are given the chance to continue their studies. This will spell the difference for a child's future," he added.

Earlier, it was announced that the program would be canceled in Eastern Visayas , affecting 28,400 beneficiaries in the region.

"While the government's harping on its rice access card program, what we don't know is that it's also cutting funding for other programs. We're taking away food from one mouth to put in another," he said.

"Rice access cards program are under DSWD and DA while the food-for-school program is under DepEd. Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?," he added.

Roxas urged the executive branch to cut public expenditures in other areas and increase revenue integrity in order to sustain the government's food-for-school and other similar anti-poverty programs.

"Officials serving in the boards of government owned and controlled corporations should give up some of their perks as a sacrifice for the country. We can also look into restoring a four-day work week in government so we could save on energy costs," he said.

"More importantly, the revenue collection agencies should increase their collections. Let's do what needs to be done to keep these poor children in school," he said.

The Liberal Party President reminded the government that "maintaining a business-as-usual attitude" when the rice crisis has now compromised successful anti-poverty programs "will only plunge more families into the throes of hunger."

"We continue to ask the government, 'What's the plan?' The present dilemma underscores the need for long-term solutions that would raise domestic production," he said.

The Food-For-School Program was started in 2004, and targets pre-elementary and Grade 1 students. Under this program, each pupil is given a ration of 1 kilo of rice for 95 days in 5 months. Since 2005, incidence of malnutrition dropped from 21% to 17%, and school attendance improved from 90% in 2006 to 95% in 2007. It has 111,548 beneficiary students.

Roxas has proposed the following measures to ensure a plentiful domestic harvest:

1. All conversions of irrigated land should be stopped, and investigate how much has the government spent on irrigation for these converted lands;

2. Ensure that all of the inputs necessary--seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, among others--must be made available to farmers;

3. Consider the development of 'small water impounding' irrigation systems, which costs only about P30,000 per hectare, versus large-scale irrigation through dams which costs P100,000 per hectare;

4. Invest in eliminating wastage in the drying of rice, estimated at 30% of annual consumption, and more than enough to cover the NFA's importation of 2 million MT of rice or 17% of annual consumption;

5. Revisit the plans to develop the Agusan and Lanao marsh areas for planting, as these are ideal for planting rice, similar to the Vietnamese river delta basin; and

6. Reactivate the peace process in insurgency areas to allow the unimpeded cultivation, planting, tending and harvesting of crops in these areas.

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