Usec. Punay: DSWD targets 300,000 beneficiaries of food stamp program

MANILA, Philippines — Three hundred thousand “food insecure” Filipinos are targeted to be beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) “Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program” (FSP) by mid-next year.

According to DSWD Undersecretary for Innovations Eduardo Punay, the scaled-up implementation of FSP will begin in July 2024 after its full pilot run in December to May.

“Ang full run ng pilot implementation for the 3,000 beneficiaries po ay magsisimula this December to May po next year… next year scale up na tayo sa 300,000 na beneficiaries, this will run mid-next year. Mga July po siya magsisimula,” Punay said in a media forum on Thursday.

(The full pilot run implementation for the 300,000 beneficiaries will start this December until May next year. By next year, we will scale up to 300,000 beneficiaries; this will run mid-next year or starting July 2024.)

The pilot run is being implemented in Tondo, Manila, and Dapa town in Surigao del Norte with 5,000 beneficiaries each.

In July, alongside hundreds of thousands of additional beneficiaries, three more areas will also be added to the FSP list: San Mariano in Isabela, Garchitorena in Camarines Sur, and Parang in Maguindanao.

READ: ‘Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program’ declared major gov’t project

The FSP targets to benefit a total of 1 million indigents who are living below the food and poverty line, said DSWD.

The remaining 600,000 beneficiaries are scheduled to be assisted by 2025.

“Talagang naka-program, scale up po kasi ito. Phasing ang implementation natin hindi po pwedeng bigla-bigla… May design po ang implementation natin,” Punay said.

READ: Marcos launches DSWD’s Food Stamp Program

(It is really programmed, because it is scaled up. Our implementation is phasing, it cannot be done all of a sudden… Our implementation has a design.)

Meanwhile, the agency is also considering alternative methods for delivering assistance to the beneficiaries.

“In the implementation of the pilot run of this program this year we will be testing other modalities. We are not limited to EBTs [electronic benefits transfer] and scope-system of WFP [World Food Programme]…We are looking at the use of QR code para wala na iyong card [so we can omit the use of cards],” Punay said,