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Republic of the Philippines

House of Representatives
Quezon City, Metro Manila

Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

‘Twentieth Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No, 2461

Introduced by Representatives Dante S. Garcia and Kenneth Paolo C. Tereng

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The ancient Roman proverb, “Healthy mind in a healthy body” holds true even in these
modern times, with our body and health condition affecting not just our mood and emotions,
but our overall day-to-day activities and functions.

Thus, the right to adequate food and proper nutrition is a basic human right enshrined in the
1987 Constitution. It is, after all, the duty of the State to address - and ultimately end -
malnutrition and provide the citizenry access to nutritious food.

The newly created program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, whose
target is to address the nutrition needs of the poor families, as well as pregnant and lactating
women, dubbed Walang Gutom 2027: The Philippine Food Stamp Program, is in line with
the President's Philippine Development Agenda aimed at addressing involuntary hunger
among the poorest of the poor families.

Also mentioned during the President’s SONA 2023 and 2024, the program will also employ a
whole-of-nation approach by espousing inter-agency partnership to contribute to the different
components of the program which aim to train, capacitate, and eventually employ
beneficiaries.

Its implementation is patterned after World Food Program's SCOPE Platform to gather
beneficiaries’ pertinent data, monitor the program’s progress, transfer the benefits, and
designed to build the family’s capacity to become productive members of the society.


For this purpose, this bill seeks to institutionalize the Food Stamp Program of the DSWD to
decrease involuntary hunger incidence in the short and medium term, and end poverty and
malnutrition altogether in the long term

In view of he foregoing, the approval of this measure is eamestly sought.

DAI GARCIA wer eles Cerone

2° Disphiqr LA UNION KM Ngayon Na Party-List



Twentieth Congress
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No. 2461

Introduced by Representatives Dante S. Garcia and Kenneth Paolo C. Tereng

AN ACT
STRENGTHENING THE WALANG GUTOM: FOOD STAMP
PROGRAM OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE AND
DEVELOPMENT AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines,
in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. — This Act shall be known as the “Walang
Gutom: Food Stamp Act.”

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. — It is the policy of the State to value the
dignity of every human person and guarantee full respect for human rights.
Towards this end, the State shall provide its citizenry with access to adequate
nutritious food through projects, programs and other services to uplift the socio
and economic rights of the marginalized and indigent persons.

SEC. 3. "Walang Gutom Assistance (WGA). — There is hereby
established a program to mitigate involuntary hunger experienced by low-
income households identified as "Walang Gutom Households” and make them
productive citizens of the country to be known as the “Walang Gutom
Assistance (WGA)” hereinafter referred to as the Walang Gutom Assistance
Program. Under the WGA Program, the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) shall, after careful assessment and evaluation, provide a
cash-based assistance in the form of an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Card
and other modalities that will be loaded with a specific amount to purchase a
select list of healthy and nutritious food commodities from partner merchant
store/s. The WGA highlights a mechanism for the delivery of social protection
interventions through the use of digital platforms to access food

For purposes of this Act, “Walang Gutom Households” refer to persons
who are indigent and financially incapacitated beneficiaries. Beneficiaries shall
be selected on a per household in which at least one member of the family is of

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working age or presence of a pregnant or lactating woman. The list of
beneficiaries shall be taken from the bottom one (1) million households from
the Listahanan 3 generated through the National Household Targeting System
for Poverty Reduction or any targeting system adopted by the National
Government.

SEC. 4. Identification and Selection of Beneficiaries. -The
following are the steps for the identification of beneficiaries, to wit: (1)
Uploading of potential beneficiaries to SCOPE Registration Module or other
DSWD authorized platform, using the Listahanan 3 data or any targeting system
adopted by the National Government, based on the criteria under the WGA
Program; (2) Pre-generation of list of potential beneficiaries for field
verification and validation; and (3) Identified beneficiaries will be enrolled in
the WGA Program.

SEC. 5. WGA Program Components. - The following are the
components of the WGA Program:

a. Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) or Other Modalities

The FSA Program will make use of EBT cards as digital means or
other modalities as may be used by the DSWD for the provision of food to
beneficiaries through cash-based assistance, in collaboration with partner
merchants such as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), supermarkets, and
Kadiwa, among others. The EBT cards or other modalities can be used to
purchase various food items as recommended by the Food and Nutrition
Research Institute (FNRI).

EBT or other modality will be distributed to either of the identified
primary and secondary holders in each of the households.

For the initial implementation of the WGA Program, the DSWD will
adopt the SCOPE platform, a web-based application developed by the United
Nations-World Food Program or other DSWD authorized platform used for
beneficiary registrations, intervention setups, distribution planning, transfers,
and distribution reporting.

The EBT or other modality shall include the following sub-components,
to wit:

a.l, Retailer Management

Active participation of the partner merchants in the program
implementation is paramount to ensure that household beneficiaries have access
to food. To be able to do this, inventory of merchants has to be updated on a
regular basis which shall be monitored through SCOPE platform or other
DSWD authorized platform. An inventory of merchants in the target program
areas shall be done for possible partnership in the FSA Program
implementation.

a.2. Beneficiary Data Management


A beneficiary list will be generated based on the process of beneficiary
information management through the SCOPE Platform or other DSWD
authorized platform. The National Household Targeting System for Poverty
Reduction (NHTS-PR) or Listahanan shall be utilized by the DSWD to validate
pre-identified household beneficiaries based on the standard targeting system
for purposes of beneficiary eligibility and deduplication process.

a.3. Compliance Monitoring

Qualified household beneficiaries need to comply with the following, to

wit:

1 Attendance to ladderized nutrition education and productivity *

enhancement sessions.

2. Participation in job facilitation/livelihood activities.

a4. Benefit Transfer and Reconciliation

The SCOPE or DSWD authorized platform will be used to send
necessary information between the DSWD and local merchants to facilitate the
monetary-based assistance transfers and documents for reporting. In a scenario
where there are no available internet connections, the SCOPE or DSWD
platform can be deployed in combination with WFP-built electronic voucher
delivery mechanism. Beneficiaries may use the EBT cards or other modalities to
purchase food in select retail locations, and top-ups to the cards can be made for
new distribution cycles. When retailers sync their devices to the platform, the
information can be used for the reconciliation and payment process. Data can
also be used for monitoring and reporting. Fingerprints are stored on the cards
and retailers can verify the beneficiary identity through the biometric at the time
of purchase to ensure the intended person is the one using the card. The steps on
verification, validation and deduplication process will be reflected in the
methodology.

SEC. 6. Enabling of EBT Cards or Other Modalities. - Upon
compliance of the required attendance to the Nutrition Education session, the
distributed EBT cards or other modalities will be enabled once a month with a
monetary value amounting to Php 3,000.00 to be used for the purchase of food
commodities from partner merchants/retailers.

SEC.7. Identification and _ Selection of Partner
Merchants/Vendors. - The following will be conducted for the identification of
partner merchants, to wit: (1) Mapping of local merchants; (2) Identification and
evaluation of potential merchant/vendors using the criteria under the WGA
Program; (3) Partnership with eligible merchants: (a) Partnership through
Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Agriculture for the
KADIWA market; (b) Partnership with select private merchants/vendor, and
(c) Registration of accredited merchants/vendors.


SEC. 8. Capacity Building. - The target beneficiaries are required to
regularly attend community sessions and assemblies as a condition for the
continuous electronic benefit transfers. The DSWD shall conduct case
monitoring and home visits to ensure compliance with the WGA Program.

Community sessions and assemblies are aimed toward the achievement of
individual behavior and social behavior change. A ladderised approach shall be
utilized focusing on the following key areas, to wit: (a) Nutrition Education; (b)
Productivity Enhancement; and (c) Coaching and Mentoring to complement the
nutrition education and productivity enhancement sessions.

SEC. 9. Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Strategy
And Action. - To achieve a positive behavioral change among program
beneficiaries and stakeholders, the program will implement SBCC as an
intervention that targets the program's stakeholders and beneficiaries.

SEC. 10. Job Network Services and/or Employment Promotion. -
Opportunities shall be created under the program to ensure job facilitation and
self employment for all household beneficiaries. Necessary support may be
provided to the beneficiaries through partnerships with the following concerned
agencies such as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE),
Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Similar assistance shall be provided to aid in the processing of
requirements of the household beneficiaries during the job-seeking period. The
WGA Program may provide certain exceptions to this condition on a case-to-
case basis to be assessed by the respective field offices where the beneficiaries
are located.

As part of the exit strategy, the beneficiaries may also be referred to the
Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) and other existing relevant programs and
services of various line agencies to ensure program sustainability

SEC. 11. Grievance Redress Management. - A feedback system will be
developed as a means of gathering suggestions, recommendations, and inputs in
order to improve the WGA Program. The feedback shall include a grievance
mechanism that promotes transparency, fairness, and accountability in the
implementation.

SEC. 12. Establishment of a National Program Management Office
(NPMO). — There shall be established a National Program Management Office
(NPMO) to operationalize the WGA Program. The NPMO in coordination with
the development partners and stakeholders in the national and regional level

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shall implement the WGA Program activities. Likewise, Regional Program
Management Offices (RPMOs) shall be established in each region for the
implementation of the WGA Program.

Various departments in the local government units composed of
multidisciplinary units from social welfare, health, nutrition and other
stakeholders will be tapped at the local level

DSWD shall adopt adequate and efficient modes to expeditiously and
effectively deliver the support needed by the target beneficiaries. The DSWD
may procure or construct a secure office system, information and
communication technology equipment, and all necessary capital outlay
expenditures needed to efficiently and effectively implement the WGA
Program.

SEC. 13. Creation of An Inter-Agency Council ("IAC") To Monitor
WGA Program. - There is hereby established an Inter-Agency Council to
monitor and ensure compliance with the mandates of the WGA Program,
hereinafter known as the Council, which shall be composed of the following
agencies:

(a) Department of Social Welfare and Development;

(b) Department of Labor and Employment;

(c) Department of Interior and Local Government;

(d) Department of Health;

(ec) Department of Trade and Industry;

(f) Department of Agriculture;

(g) Technology and Skills Development Authority;

(h) Philippine Statistics Authority; and

(i) National Economic and Development Authority.

These agencies are tasked to formulate programs to eliminate food poor
families based on their mandates as well as provide employment and skills
enhancement opportunities. The Council will also serve as the monitoring body
as regards WGA Program initiatives.

The Council members may designate their duly authorized representative
who shall have the rank of not lower than an assistant secretary or its
equivalent. These representatives shall attend Council meetings in their behalf,
and shall receive emoluments as may be determined by the Council in
accordance with existing budget and accounting rules and regulations.

The Office of the Undersecretary for Innovations shall act as the
Secretariat of the Council.

SEC. 14. Program Coordination With The Department of
Agriculture. - The DSWD shall coordinate the WGA Program with the
Department of Agriculture for the purpose of, among others, helping the local
farmers to sell their farm products.


SEC. 15. Personnel Complement. - The DSWD may create the required
plantilla and staffing pattern necessary for the implementation of this Act in
coordination with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the
Civil Service Commission (CSC). The DSWD shall include in their budgetary
submission to the DBM the required budget for personnel services and
miscellaneous and other operating expenses. Such budgetary requirements shall
be included in the General Appropriations Act.

SEC. 16. Joint Congressional Oversight Committee. — A congressional
oversight committee is constituted to monitor, set the overall framework, and
review the implementation of this Act.

The oversight committee shall be composed of five (5) Senators and five
(5) Members of the House of Representatives to be appointed by the Senate
President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively, and co-
chaired by the chairpersons of the Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and
Rural Development of the Senate and the Committee on Social Services of the
House of Representatives.

For purposes of determining remedial legislation, the oversight
committee shall, within three (3) years after the effectivity of this Act, conduct a
review of the impact, accomplishment and performance of the implementing
agencies.

SEC. 17. Implementing Rules and Regulations. — Within six (6) months
from the effectivity of this Act, the Secretary of Social Welfare and
Development, in consultation with the Secretaries of Labor and Employment,
Health, Agriculture, and the Trade and Industry, shall promulgate the necessary
tules and regulations for the effective implementation of this Act.

SEC. 18. Appropriations. — The amount necessary for the initial
implementation of this Act shall be charged against the current year’s
appropriations of DSWD. Thereafter, such sum as may be necessary for the
continued implementation of this Act shall be included in the annual General
Appropriations Act.

SEC. 19. Separability Clause. — If any provision of this Act is declared
unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act or any provisions not affected
thereby shall remain in full force and effect.

SEC. 20. Repealing Clause. — All laws, presidential decrees or
issuances, executive orders, letter of instructions, administrative orders, rules,
and regulations or parts thereof contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of
this act are amended, repealed, or modified accordingly.

SEC. 21. Effectivity. — This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after
its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,