The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is planning to pilot test its food stamp program “Walang Gutom 2027” in July. It aims to alleviate hunger in the country.
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian. Photo via Presidential Communications Office/Facebook
According to DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian, they are targeting to initially rollout the program to 3,000 families this year, additional 300,000 families next year, and another 300,000 families for the following year, until they reach one million beneficiaries for the said program.
“We are working with PSA’s [Philippine Statistics Authority’s] in-house poverty expert who is their Usec – Usec. Dennis Mapa. He is helping us craft the concept there. So, the remaining days of May and June, we will work on designing it. Now, July to December will be the pilot run to vet the [program] properly,” Gatchalian said in a press briefing in Malacañang.
Moreover, the Department will provide electronic benefit transfers for food credits amounting to P3,000 to Filipino poor families with a monthly income of lower than P8,000.
“By meeting the daily food requirements of its target beneficiaries, the said program will sufficiently mitigate hunger caused by extreme poverty,” Gatchalian said.
The DSWD has identified pilot areas of the program to include the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, other geographically isolated regions or provinces, urban poor, rural poor, and calamity-stricken areas.
