P500 million more allotted to ‘food for school’ program

President Arroyo ordered yesterday the Department of Budget and Management to immediately release P500 million to the Department of Education to fund her administration’s "food for school" program.

This brings to P12 billion the total amount disbursed so far by government in its P35-billion so-called "pump-priming program" for the first three months of the year.

Mrs. Arroyo visited yesterday the San Fabian East Central Elementary School in San Fabian, Pangasinan to push further the momentum of her basic services campaign to help poor Filipinos feel the direct benefits of the country’s improving economy.

She explained the food-for-school program is different from the existing school feeding program, which targets school children only. The program, she said, aims to alleviate hunger on a much larger scale since it also seeks to ease hunger in the poor students’ families.

"We used to spend P20 for breakfast per student every day under the school feeding program. This only benefited the students. But if the money is used to buy rice for the students to take home, their whole family would benefit from this," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She noted that since the food for school program was started, "there has been a steady increase in the number of pupils attending their classes in school," citing a report by a Pangasinan public school official.

"Dropouts are declining," she said, quoting DepEd regional director Vilma Labrador.

After her brief message at the school, Mrs. Arroyo distributed one-kilo bags of rice to poor students for them to bring home to their families.

The pump-priming package covers five priority concerns including education, health, food, housing and infrastructure. The P500 million she ordered released for food aid forms part of the P35 billion.

Mrs. Arroyo was accompanied by Speaker Jose de Venecia and his wife Gina, Pangasinan Rep. Generoso Tulagan, Gov. Victor Agbayani, San Fabian Mayor Mojamito Libunao and Labrador.

Mrs. Arroyo also awarded 23 land deeds to landless farmers.

She also distributed 123 irrigation pumps for San Fabian, Mangaldan and Manaoag towns with an aggregate worth of P2.2 million. The irrigation pumps were funded by the Department of Agriculture through the efforts of De Venecia.