MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. has approved the inclusion of single parents and breastfeeding mothers in the government's food stamp program eyed for pilot implementation in July, Cabinet officials said on Tuesday.

Their inclusion will strengthen the First 1,000 Days Program which aims to address stunting through maternal nutrition and proper child-feeding practices, Palace briefer Daphne Paez said.

• DSWD eyes pilot run of food stamp program by July; 1 million beneficiaries identified

"Ang marching order ng Pangulo, dapat malabanan natin ang stunting at kagutuman at pagsanib-pwersa ng iba't ibang programa ng gobyerno para hindi sila piece-by-piece ang turing [dito]" Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian told Palace reporters.

"The new dimension that we bring to the table today is folding in the first 1,000 days into the program... Ang gusto ng Pangulo natin is to add that dimension of stunting into the picture kasi irreversible 'yun," he added.

(The marching order of the President is we should fight stunting and hunger by joining the forces of various. government agencies so that the approach would not be piecemeal. The President wants to add that dimension of stunting into the picture because that's irreversible.)

Gatchalian described the first 1,000 days from pregnancy until lactation as a "crucial period." He said studies showed that stunting already happens by the time some children reach daycare.

"Irreversible na. Ang paradigm shift natin... attacking the problem sa first 1,000 days," the DSWD chief said.

"Yung nasa sinapupunan pa siya, wala pa tayong ganoon ka-aggressive na programa and if I may boldly stay, it is going to be in this administration that we are going to tackle even before they get into the facilities," he said.

(It's already irreversible by then. Our paradigm shift is attacking the problem in the first 1,000 days. Starting at nutrition from the womb, we have no program as aggressive as that yet.)

• DSWD eyes pilot run of food stamp program by July; 1 million beneficiaries identified

About 1 in 5 Filipino children aged 0 to 23 months old and 28.7 percent of children below 5 years old are stunted, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said.

He said his agency aims to halve these figures by 2028 or the end of the Marcos administration.

"If you want a human capital na magtatrabaho and they are intelligent, they will pass school, you really need to feed them well during their early life years kasi dun yung growth and development na kailangan nila," Herbosa said.

The pilot run of the food stamp program aims to cover 1 million poorest families, the Department of Social Welfare and Development earlier said. Target beneficiaries will receive food credits worth P3,000 to purchase a select list of food commodities from DSWD-accredited local retailers, added the agency.

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