MANILA — The Department of Social Welfare and Development said Thursday that canned products are excluded from the government's food stamp program.

During a plenary session on the agency's 2024 budget, Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel asked Sen. Imee Marcos, the DSWD budget sponsor, if relatively unhealthy canned products would be included in the program.

“Hindi qualified ang mga delata, kinakailangan sariwa ang bibilhin,” Pimentel said.

Marcos replied, “There is an established restriction in the list, they are obliged to find fresh vegetables in the area.”

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She said P1.89 billion was allocated for the DSWD food stamp program for 2024, in partnership with the Food Nutrition and Research Institute.

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Marcos noted that the Senate decreased the total budget of the DSWD to P244.416 billion from P245.13 billion from the proposal of the House of Representatives.

The DSWD’s flagship anti-poverty program Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program eats up almost half of the agency's the total budget with a P103 billion allocation, down from the initially proposed P112 billion.

Pimentel, meanwhile, brought up the issue of conflicting poverty incidence statistics from the DSWD and the Philippine Statistics Authority.

“Kung sabihin ng President poverty incidence will be down to 9 percent at the end of his term, yun ang sabi eh, but the starting point is 22 percent. If the DSWD figures are to be believed, mali. The DSWD says it is 30 percent,” Pimentel said.

"Then how can he bring it down to 9 percent at the end of his term? So let’s help the administration, the President by feeding him correct figures or siguro may factual basis naman ang ating figures," he continued.

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Marcos said, “Mas maniniwala ako sa DSWD dahil may mga pangalan at address kung sino-sino talaga ang nakalistang poor.”

But she said that by next year, more accurate data on poverty incidence could be obtained with the Community-Based Monitoring System or CBMS of local governments and the PSA.

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