RECTO: DEPED CHILD-FEEDING BUDGET NOW P11.7B

THE budget for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) “School-Based Feeding Program” will double from the current year’s P5.68 billion to P11.71 billion under next year’s P5.76 trillion national budget.

House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said the “increase is unprecedented.”

If the proposed P4.1 billion for the DSWD’s “Supplementary Feeding Program” is added, the total budget for the government’s child feeding program will reach P15.8 billion next year, or a P5 billion jump from this year, he said.

“Never has the budget for child feeding been supersized to this big.

On this, the government has put its money where its mouth is,” Recto said.

By Recto’s computation, using 2023 costing, the P15.8. billion will allow the two agencies to serve about 857 million meals to children with nutritional deficiencies.

This year, the DepEd will provide

1,678,704 students one meal a day for 120 days while the Department of Welfare and Socia Development (DWSD) will have time high of P83.70 per liter in June.

1,754,637 beneficiaries who will also receive one meal a day for 120 days.

He said the costing for 2024 might still be adjusted to inflation, “but it will not change the fact that the two agencies will have in their hands a big catering operation next year”.

Recto explained that under the present “division of labor,” DepEd will cater to Kindergarten and Grades One to Six learners from indigent families who are wasted and stunted and because of this are in danger of dropping out.

“It will go higher, but we don’t see it going past or reaching the levels it did last year,” Bellas told ABS-CBN News.

“China actually delivered on their commitment to reduce their production of oil this July, bringing it down to 860,000 barrels,” Abad told Teleradyo Serbisyo on Saturday.

“But at the same time, because (China’s) commitment (is to produce under) 1 million (barrels), coincidentally Russia made the same pronouncement, when before it did not make the same commitment in July. But all of a sudden, this month or next month they can cut an additional 5,000 barrels per day,” he added.

In an advisory, fuel firm Unioil said diesel will increase its products by P3.70 to P3.90 per liter, while gasoline will go up by P0.20 to P0.40 per liter.

This comes just a week after a major pump price hike of P3.50 for diesel, P2.10 for gasoline, and P3.25 for kerosene.

It’s also the fifth straight week of increases for diesel and kerosene and the fourth in a row for gasoline.

“The national government also maintains its dedicated support and commitment to the other aspects of the Normalization Program such as socioeconomic development, security, transitional justice and reconciliation, and confidencebuilding measures including amnesty,” he added.

The decommissioning process is part of the government’s Normalization Program which signals the official transitioning of former combatants into mainstream society as productive and peaceful citizens.

Lagdameo shared that 5,499 decommission combatants have been provided with cash assistance; and, around 35,000 birth certificates have been processed.

Moreover, 3,000 decommissioned combatants completed their skills training with TESDA, while 3,658 and their next-to-kin have finished their basic education through the Alternative Learning System.