Tacloban City residents line up before 6 a.m. at a lawmaker's district office on March 24, 2025 to seek financial assistance. ABS-CBN News, file

MANILA — The National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) on Wednesday said its programs are focused on areas of the Visayas to alleviate hunger in that region, saying it also strengthened dialogues and consultations with various local government units on this.

Lope Santos III, NAPC’s lead convenor, stressed the importance of communicating and coordinating with national government agencies to also address hunger by implementing programs such as the social welfare department’s “Walang Gutom” and livelihood projects under the labor department. 

“May regions talaga na mataas ang poverty incidence for example, Visayas — mataas ang Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) — so naka-focus tayo diyan at magnitude of poverty naman ay nasa ibang probinsya ng Visayas at ito ang mga tinututukan natin,” said Lope in a briefing aired on state-run PTV. 

(There are some regions where poverty incidence is high. Like in the Visayas — it is high in Eastern Visayas — so we are focused there. There is also high magnitude of poverty in other provinces in the Visayas, and we are focusing on them)

Most Filipinos find ‘ayuda’ helpful – survey

Poverty incidence is the percentage of a population living on less than the poverty threshold while magnitude refers to the actual number of households living in poverty. 

NAPC said some local government programs also address climate change and disaster risk reduction.

“[P]ero ang pinakamahalaga ay kung paano ma-aaccess ng batayang sector itong binanggit ko na national programs at sa gayon ay mapatupad nila sa mga komunidad kasama ang local government,” Santos added. 

(But what is important is how the basic sectors access national programs and implement these in their communities alongside the local government)

Santos emphasized that food is the “most important factor” in addressing the country’s hunger problem but this should be accessible and affordable to the poor. 

Hunger hits 27 percent in March, highest since pandemic: SWS

“Para maging accessible and affordable ito, dapat may pambili ang ating mamamayan outside the farming and fishing communities. Napakarami ng programa ng ating Department of Agriculture na tumutugon dito. Sabi ng ating kalihim, wala tayong problema sa pagkain,” he said. 

(For food to be accessible and affordable, our people should have enough money to buy from outside their communities. Our Department of Agriculture has many programs for this. [Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel] said we have no problem with food)

In late March, a survey by polster Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that 27.2 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in the last three months – the highest since the pandemic.

SWS said families in Visayas were the hardest hit by hunger at 33.7 percent, followed by Metro Manila at 28.3 percent, Mindanao at 27.3 percent, and the rest of Luzon at 24 percent.

RELATED VIDEO