The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reiterated on Friday (May 29) that the DSWD-managed Walang Gutom Program (WGP), the government’s flagship anti-hunger initiative, is a targeted program and does not require any application from prospective beneficiaries.

Undersecretary Edu Punay of the DSWD’s Innovations and Program Development Group (IPDG) said the Department used the Listahanan 3 as the baseline data, supplemented by cross-matching with the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in identifying the first batches of WGP beneficiaries.

“At the time of the WGP’s launch in 2023, the prevailing monthly food threshold set by the PSA for a family of five was Php9,581.00. This means that a household is considered food-poor if it spends less than Php106.46 for a single meal per day, or Php21.29 per person. Sila yung mga target natin na maging benepisyaryo ng programa,” Undersecretary Punay said on Friday.

With the institutionalization of the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) by the PSA, the IPDG official said the succeeding list of beneficiaries will now be drawn from the updated CBMS database of food-poor households.

“Sa pagpapatuloy po ng ating programa, we are targeting to complete and reach the 750,000 household beneficiaries at the soonest possible time. Ang gagamitin na po natin ngayon ay ang most updated na listahan ng PSA na tinawag na CBMS,” Undersecretary Punay pointed out.

The DSWD official also emphasized that unlike other assistance programs, the WGP does not accept applications since beneficiaries are selected through data-driven targeting.

“Wala pong aplikasyon dito sa WGP dahil ito ay targeted. Ibig sabihin, pinipili natin ang benepisyaryo na talagang nangangailangan base sa mga datos. Sa WGP, sila po yung food-poor or mga sambahayang walang kakayahang makabili, o walang access sa pagkain na bubuo sa isang healthy diet,” the IPDG undersecretary pointed out.

Launched in 2023 and institutionalized in 2024 through Executive Order No. 44, the WGP serves as the Philippine government’s flagship anti-hunger program based on the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to combat food insecurity and reduce involuntary hunger among Filipino families.

In partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through the Reducing Food Insecurity and Undernutrition with Electronic Vouchers (REFUEL) Project, the DSWD aims to strengthen and scale up the coverage of the WGP.

The project, with a total cost of Php74 billion, is supported by an ADB loan to the Philippines and co-financed by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the OPEC Fund for International Development.

Beneficiaries of the program receive Php3,000 monthly food credit on their electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that they can use to purchase nutritious food from DSWD-accredited retail stores.

The accredited stores only sell items that belong to the identified food basket items or those recommended by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).

Using their EBT cards, beneficiaries must use 50 percent of the food credit to purchase carbohydrates such as rice, sweet potato, among others, while 30 percent is intended for protein food items, and 20 percent on fiber foods such as fruits and vegetables.

To date, there are 600,000 households benefiting from the DSWD’s WGP. (YADP)