Press Release
December 7, 2008

Gordon wants nutrition program for schoolchildren reviewed

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon wants to have a better look at how the nutrition program for public school pupils is being implemented by concerned government agencies especially with the mounting health concerns of children today.

Gordon raised his concern during the Senate plenary debates on the budget for the Department of Health (DOH), which is the agency allotted with funds for the school feeding program.

"With the many health concerns and deficiencies experienced by our schoolchildren, it is important that we do not just come up with a feeding program, but we also have to make sure that when we implement this, it would really respond to the health and nutrition needs of our pupils," he said.

Under the DOH budget proposal is an item named "Malusog na Simula, Yaman ng Bansa" program with a P3.34-billion budget. A special provision states that the program is a nutrition feeding program with rice, vegetable-based noodles and other nutritional food for schoolchildren.

However, it was not clear whether the program would cover all the health concerns of public school pupils, such as malnutrition, intestinal worms, dental caries, and deficiencies in iron, iodine and Vitamin A.

Gordon also questioned the complexity of the program, since the budget would be released to the DOH but would eventually be forwarded to the Department of Education (DepEd), which is the implementing agency for the feeding program.

"Why is it that the fund is allotted to the DOH although the money will eventually be released to Deped? Would it not make things complicated? I think, we need to have a better look at this and ensure that this feeding program would really be beneficial for our schoolchildren," he said.

Gordon, who is the author of the Health and Education Acceleration Program (HEAP) bill that aims to improve the state of education and health care system for public school pupils, highlighted the glaring health deficiencies of schoolchildren today.

Citing government statistics, he explained that 21% of schoolchildren are malnourished; of children ages 6-12, 11.4% are iodine deficient, 37.4% suffer iron deficiency anemia, 36% suffer vitamin A deficiency, 67% suffer intestinal helminthiasis, and 97% have dental caries.

Gordon said the current state of health of public school children is one of the primary reasons why he is eagerly pushing for the passage of the HEAP bill, which would require telecommunications companies to remit part of their net earnings from local text messages to fund the program.

"I am sure that once the HEAP bill is passed into law and finally implemented, it would resolve all the problems in the education and health care system of the country. But since we are still waiting for that to happen, we must find other ways to address these serious concerns," he said.

"One way is through these feeding programs of the government. But I strongly recommend that we review these programs to make sure that they really address all the health and nutrition needs of our schoolchildren," he added.

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