A lawmaker has filed a bill seeking to institutionalize a framework for the right to adequate food in the country.
In House Bill (HB) 4562 or the “Right to Adequate Food Framework” bill, Quezon City Rep. Patrick Michael D. Vargas seeks to address food availability, stability and security by establishing well-functioning distribution, processing and market systems.
Sans citing sources, Vargas said the Philippines ranked 74th for food affordability, 63rd for food availability, 69th for quality and safety and 101st in terms of natural resources and resilience. Among the sub-categories, the Philippines again ranked first in only one, nutritional standards pointing perhaps to our perennial problem with being excellent in law-making, but extremely poor in implementation, he added.
Vargas noted that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. vowed to exhaust all efforts to stabilize food supply and improve food production in response to the looming global food crisis as reported by international institutions like the World Bank
Vargas said he believes HB 4562 supports the President’s priority food security programs. He added that the bill, when enacted into law, shall serve as guide and development plan for the country’s commitment to eradicate hunger within a 10 year period.
Under the bill, the State shall ensure that in 36 months after the effectivity of this proposal the incidence of hunger will be reduced by 25 percent, from the level recorded at the time of the passage of this proposal.
The bill also believes that five years after the effectivity of the proposal, such incidence of hunger will be further reduced by 25 percent.
Further, provided that in seven-and-a-half years, it will further be reduced by 25 percent and in 10 years there shall be a zero incidence of hunger.
Salient provisions of the bill include guidelines on international cooperation, standards on the minimum amount of food for the undernourished and government obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the right to adequate food.
The bill also seeks to address the following: food availability, stability and adequacy; food quality and safety; physical and economic access to food; and, well-functioning distribution, processing and market systems.
The bill also creates the Commission on the Right to Adequate Food under the Office of the President.
“Every Filipino family deserves to have enough food on their plates and be free from hunger. When we eradicate hunger, we improve not only the health and wellbeing of individuals, but create better communities and a united nation,” Vargas said.
The Right to Adequate Food Framework bill was approved on third and final reading in the House of Representatives but failed to pass in the Senate in the previous Congress.