THE school-based feeding program (SBFP) of the Department of Education (DepEd) is getting a budget of P5.97 billion in 2020, a lawmaker said on Sunday.
Rep. Michael T. Defensor of Anakalusugan Party-list said the budget for next year’s feeding program is P1 billion, or 20 percent higher than this year’s P4.97 billion.
“We are all for the bigger allocation, so that the program can target and cover a greater number of underfed school children,” Defensor said in a statement.
Under the SBFP, Defensor said undernourished children from kindergarten to Grade 6 are given deworming tablets and fed at least one fortified meal plus doses of micronutrients in the form of pills, capsules or syrups, for at least 120 days in a school year.
The SBFP targets mostly “wasted and severely wasted” school children, or those deemed too skinny for their age.
“Right now, many school children from poverty-stricken families, even here in Metro Manila, continue to suffer from short-term hunger,” Defensor said.
Short-term hunger is “a condition experienced by children who do not eat breakfast and walk long distances to reach school,” Defensor said.
Guidelines
Defensor added he expects the SBFP would help ease starvation among school children from indigent households.
“Our sense is, the DepEd is getting better in executing the SBFP, especially after the adoption a new set of guidelines two years ago,” Defensor said.
Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones issued the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the SBFP for the School Years 2017-2022 on August 7, 2017.
The SBFP is one of the three national feeding programs for undernourished children institutionalized by Republic Act 11037, or the Masustansyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino Act, which President Duterte signed into law in June 2018.
The two others are the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Supplemental Feeding Program for Children in Public Day Care Centers and the Department of Agriculture’s Milk Feeding Program.
Incentive
Meanwhile, House Committee on Basic Education and Culture Chairman Roman Romulo said qualified public-school teachers are set to receive their P1,000 World Teachers’ Day Incentive Benefit (WTDIB).
“The sum of P800 million meant to pay for the WTDIB of qualified public school teachers is provided for and fully funded in this year’s General Appropriations Act,” Romulo said.
The DepEd has already issued the guidelines for the payment of the incentive benefit, Romulo said.
“The P800 million is for this year. Next year, another P900 million has been earmarked to pay for the WTDIB in the proposed 2020 national budget that the House recently approved,” Romulo said.
According to Romulo, the bigger allocation anticipates that a greater number of teachers, to include new hires, would be entitled to receive the incentive benefit in 2020.