Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian said on Thursday (March 20) the agency’s Walang Gutom Program (WGP) can help address the oversupply of agricultural products in the market by connecting with local agriculture offices to accredit local retailers.
“In fact, that is why we are scaling it [WGP] and we are accrediting local retailers to supply doon sa Walang Gutom Program. Pero tulad ng nasabi ko, palaki pa lang ang programa. In fact, right now nandun pa lang sa stage na lumalaki siya kasi kakatapos lang ng pilot pero ang goal nga dun is to link them,” Secretary Gatchalian said in response to the query of Net 25 anchors Ali Sotto and Pat-P Diaz on linking the oversupply of agricultural products to the WGP.
The DSWD chief said the agency continues to scale up and accredit local retailers for the WGP.
“Yung accredited retailers are local retailers and yung system [ng programa] kasi automated also. So nalalaman natin kung ano yung kinukonsumo ng mga benepisyaryo natin…those reports we can give to the local agriculture office and tell them ito ang kinukonsumo baka dapat ito ang itanim nyo at ibenta nyo sa mga local retailers. Yung mga local retailers natin are agriculture co-ops, farmers’ groups. ‘Yan yung mga pinapriority natin na pagkukunan ng mga benepisyaryo natin,” Secretary Gatchalian explained during the Thursday interview with Net25.
As of press time, the WGP has 879 accredited retailers across 10 regions implementing the WGP, of which 112 are Coop Retailers which are licensed by the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA).
The partner-retailers ensure that nutritious commodities in the approved food baskets prescribed by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) will be offered to beneficiaries.
Under the WGP, Php3,000 food credits loaded into the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards are given monthly to the beneficiaries.
The food credit can be used to buy high-nutrition food items which include 50 percent for carbohydrates, 30 percent for protein, and 20 percent for fiber-rich foods.
The DSWD’s WGP, created through Executive Order No. 44, is the national government’s anti-hunger and poverty reduction program aimed at decreasing the incidence of involuntary hunger experienced by Filipinos from low-income households.
The WGP aims to feed 750,000 food poor families by 2027.