LOREN URGES GOV'T TO INTENSIFY
KIDS' HEALTH, NUTRITION PROGRAM

Sen. Loren Legarda yesterday called on the national and local governments to intensify the delivery of health and nutritional services to children as the "most vulnerable sector affected by the current food crisis."

Legarda warned that because of the food crisis children will be most affected adversely, especially the children of the poor, because "they are the most vulnerable components of society, even though they represent the future."

Legarda urged the social welfare agencies of government to be more "pro-active in targeting children in their food delivery services, especially at present when schools are still closed for the summer vacation."

Legarda said that government must now finalize a plan to implement a nutrition and health program for children through the schools when they open in June. Local governments should also cooperate by pushing the program not just for schoolchildren but also those out of school.

In making the appeal, Loren pointed out that according to Department of Health statistics even before the food crisis, an estimated 50% of pupils were anemic, two out of ten children were iodine deficient and four out 100 pre-schoolers had night blindness, while 17 school children go blind every day due to Vitamin A deficiency.

A majority of the school children suffered from dental caries (84.3%); intestinal parasitism (75%); malnutrition (44.9%); and various infections of the ear (17.2%) and skin (52%), the DOH reported.

"The basic cause of the prevalent diseases suffered by schoolchildren," Loren observed, "is malnutrition arising primarily from inadequate food intake. We expect this problem to grow as the heads of poor families find it more and more difficult to purchase rice and other staple commodities due to rising prices."

Legarda also cited a report by the Ibon Foundation, titled Philippine Poverty and Underdevelopment in the 21st Century, which revealed that "improvements in the child mortality rate in the early 1990s have come to a halt under the Arroyo regime.

"Extreme systemic poverty and hunger has also resulted in 6.1 million Filipino children being underweight; 3.7 million below five years old and 2.4 million between 6 to 10 years old," the report revealed.

Legarda also expressed concern for the women who, he said, bear a disproportionate share of the burden of food deprivation and malnutrition.

Legarda declared that a more efficient distribution of food aid to the poor should especially target women and children.