President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is eyeing an intensified campaign for healthier food options and a multi-sectoral approach to address the prevailing malnutrition in the country.

Marcos met with the Department of Health (DOH) and other concerned agencies at Malacañan Palace in Manila to discuss the strategies, initiatives, challenges and ways forward on the implementation of DOH’s First 1,000 Days (F1KD) Program.

“We have to educate people to eat healthier options. We go back to the main point [which] I think is how do we consolidate all of these things that we are doing,” Marcos said during the sectoral meeting, as quoted by the Presidential Communications Office on Tuesday.

Marcos acknowledged that the Philippines is experiencing “a triple burden of malnutrition,” Malacañang Press Briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez told Palace reporters after the sectoral meeting.

“These include undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency and over nutrition or obesity. The Department of Health reported that the Philippines is among the countries with the highest prevalence of stunting or malnutrition in the East Asia Pacific Region,” Paez said.

“The consequences of this include low performance at school, economic cost due to mortality and productivity losses and increased infant mortality,” she added.

Stunting in children under five years old is at 26.7 percent and wasting at 5.5 percent, according to DOH data.

Micronutrient deficiency, particularly in Vitamin A, iron, and iodine, significantly affects children below five years of age and lactating and pregnant women.

Data from the DOH also showed that the country is facing overnutrition, with childhood obesity at 14 percent (5 to 10 years of age) and adult obesity at 40 percent.

DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa, who joined the Palace press briefing, said the contributing factors include behavior toward food consumption.

Paez said Marcos has directed the DOH, Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Agriculture (DA) and other relevant agencies to consolidate the ongoing feeding efforts into a “strong and impactful” National Nutrition Program.

During the sectoral meeting, there was also an instruction from Marcos to strengthen the National Nutrition Council’s (NNC) role in the interventions.

The NNC can institutionalize the multi-sectoral approach to nutrition, Herbosa said, adding that the national government wants to assist the local government units (LGUs) in addressing malnutrition.

“It (NNC) is a multiagency strategic council composed of [different agencies]. The DOH is now the chair and the vice chair is the Department of Agriculture and the other vice chair is the Department of the Interior and Local Government and other agencies are represented,” Herbosa said.

Helping LGUs

Marcos emphasized the need for national-level intervention to support LGUs through an invigorated NNC in addressing the multi-faceted problems on nutrition.

Marcos noted that LGUs are “highly inconsistent.“

“Well, I think Ted, (Secretary Herbosa) is doing many things already. Pero may gaps sa coordination and may (But there are gaps in coordination and there is) overlap. I’m sure there’s some wasted effort and funding there. So, I think that’s where we can focus on,” he said.

“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. And, 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.

Priority areas

Marcos instructed the DOH to focus on 34 Philippine Plan for Action for Nutrition (PPAN) priority areas with high cases of stunting and malnutrition.

He said well-off provinces and localities still post high numbers of malnourished and stunted children.

Among the priority areas in Luzon are Pangasinan, Isabela, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Quezon, Cavite, Rizal, Palawan, Oriental Mindoro, Masbate, Camarines Sur and Sorsogon.

In Visayas, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Antique, Negros Oriental, Cebu, Leyte, Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar are top priorities.

Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Lanao del Norte, Bukidnon, Davao del Sur, Cotabato, Surigao del Sur, Bangsamoro, Sulu, Basilan, Maguindanao and Tawi-Tawi are among the priorities in Mindanao. (PNA)