GOVT DISTRIBUTED 32.6 MILLION KGs OF RICE TO ABOUT HALF MILLION FAMILIES
MANILA, NOVEMBER 16, 2009 (STAR) By Paolo Romero - At the height of the global financial crisis last year, the government had distributed 32.6 million kilograms of rice worth P652 million to around half a million families through President Arroyo’s Food for School Program (FSP), the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) said yesterday.FSP sought to encourage school attendance by providing a daily ration of a kilogram of rice to poor families for at least 120 days a year as long as their children attended the state-run day care centers in their area.
NAPC Secretary Domingo Panganiban said rice was distributed in 13,764 daycare centers in 496 cities and municipalities nationwide. Some 496,704 families benefited from the program from 2008 up to the first half of 2009.
The program was under President Arroyo’s Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program (AHMP), which seeks to meet the millennium development goals of alleviating poverty and hunger in the country.
NAPC Assistant Secretary Dolores de Quiros Castillo, AHMP point person, said the cities and municipalities placed under the program registered the highest levels of hunger in the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FLIES) of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) in 2003.
Most of the beneficiaries were from the National Capital Region and 10 other provinces: Zamboanga Del Norte, Masbate, Maguindanao, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Mountain Province, Lanao del Norte, Camarines Norte, Sarangani, and Zamboanga Sibugay.
A recent study conducted by the National Nutrition Council found that 49 of the country’s 81 provinces are “food insecure.”
1,500-hectare government property set aside for evicted waterway settlers (The Philippine Star) Updated November 16, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo has set aside a 1,551.1416-hectare government property in San Miguel, Bulacan for a housing complex for government employees and a relocation site for squatters in danger zones.
In issuing Executive Order 890, Mrs. Arroyo ordered the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Department of Finance to transfer to the National Housing Authority title to the property located in Barangays Tartaro, Calumpang, Sibul, Kinamatayang Kabayo, Sta. Lucia, and Malibay in San Miguel town.
“In order to alleviate the sufferings of informal settler-families whose homes in danger areas were devastated by typhoon “Ondoy”, portions of the subject property are allocated as relocation site for them and other similarly situated victims of future catastrophes,” read EO 890.
“It is the priority concern of the government to provide housing to homeless Filipinos.”
In 2002, Mrs. Arroyo issued Executive Order 131 identifying the property as a suitable housing site.
Under EO 840, the property was subdivided among the Armed Forces, Philippine National Police, public school teachers and other government employees, with each getting 300 hectares.
The remaining 351.1416 hectares were reserved for squatters displaced by the recent typhoons.
The NHA was designated as administrator of the housing site and tasked to work with the Department of Budget and Management to put up a funding scheme. – Paolo Romero
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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