Parents bring their babies to the Department of Health launching of Vax-Baby-Vax, a 10-day Intensive Routine Catch-up Immunization program, which aims to catch-up in the delay or lack of vaccine among infants because of Covid-19 restrictions. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/file

MANILA — The Philippines will pour more resources on combating malnutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child instead of focusing on feeding programs later on in their development, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday. 

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Under the current allocation, the Department of Education (DepEd) receives P12 billion for its feeding program for elementary school students, while DOH — which caters to pregnant women, infants and toddlers — only has P500 million for various nutrition programs, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said.

“Most of our government funds were on the latter part of a child’s undernutrition,” he said.

“We emphasized to the President, the emphasis should be on the first one thousand days which involves a pregnant mother – iyong fetus pa lang ay nasa loob ng sinapupunan that they’ll be given micronutrients mainly iron, folic acid and then the tetanus and diphtheria vaccine,” he added.

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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. then ordered the national government to consolidate nutrition programs under the National Nutrition Council (NNC).

“The performance at the LGU level is highly inconsistent. I know mayors and governors who are really passionate about healthcare. I know so many more others that really don’t think about it,” Marcos said during a sectoral meeting in Malacañang. 

“That’s why, we actually have to do it ourselves at the national level. That’s why, I think we should put a little more activity under NNC,” he said.

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“Hopefully we will find local government executives that are good and have this as a priority. But those that do not, we can come in and assist them,” he added.

Around 26 percent of Filipino children are stunted, while another 30 percent are obese, Herbosa said.

“The two are in different socio economic sectors. Obesity is in the middle class and upper middle class,” he said.

“It’s a different problem. It’s food choice, mataas ang cholesterol, unli rice, unli sweets,” he said.

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The NCC is expected to craft policies to ensure that both health issues among Filipino children would be addressed to ensure that the Philippines will “strengthen our human capital, make them productive and make them contributors of our society,” the Health Secretary said.

“If you want a healthy nation, it’s about health and nutrition,” he said. 

“If all Filipinos are given the right food, they will go grow and glow.”

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