Nutrition official urges BSKE 2023 candidates to prioritize nutrition programs

Azucena Dayanghirang, assistant secretary and executive director of the National Nutrition Council (NNC), urged the heads of various LGUs to prioritize the nutrition program in the Philippines. | CDN Photo/Niña Mae Oliverio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) is around the corner, with this, a nutrition expert called on the aspiring BSKE candidates to focus on nutrition programs.

Since health and nutrition services were already involved in the local government units (LGUs), Azucena Dayanghirang, assistant secretary and executive director of the National Nutrition Council (NNC), urged the heads of various LGUs to prioritize the nutrition program in the Philippines.

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Nutrition exec: High malnutrition cases in Cebu

She made this comment after the NNC presented a 2022 data that showed a high magnitude of malnutrition cases in Cebu.

She said that malnutrition could affect the brain development of the children.

“Luoy kaayo kung ang Pilipinas, maabot ang panahon, wala nata’y mga bright nga mga bata,” the nutrition official said.

(The country will be in a pitiful state, when the the time will come, where we won’t have bright children.)

She saud that she would enjoin the chief executives of the LGUs to prioritize nutrition by investing in nutrition programs.

READ: Chipping away at malnutrition: Is feeding 79,000 kids for 120 days in Cebu province enough?

‘Nutrition specific’ programs

According to the NNC official, these programs are called “nutrition specific” which means that these programs can solve the causes of malnutrition.

“Kung ang malnutrition is directly caused by lack of food, so tagaan nato’g pagkaon [ang affected] and second is national movement mana siya, so tanan giawhag nato dili lang sa national government but [also] the local government,” she said.

(If malnutrition is directly caused by the lack of food, so we will give them food [the affected] and second is it is a national movement, so all are called upon not only the national government but also the local government.)

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Give importance to nutrition programs

She said that in the coming BSKE, she hoped that the elected candidates could give importance to nutrition programs.

Dayanghirang was here in Cebu City for the Visayas launch of the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) 2023-2028 which was considered as the government’s blueprint in addressing concerns on malnutrition in the next five years.

Based on the 2022 Operation Timbang Plus of NNC, Cebu is among the 35 provinces with high prevalence of malnutrition in the Philippines where 55,741 of children aged under five years old are in the stunting category.

PPAN 2023-2028 will also focus on addressing food insecurity along with malnutrition because the health and nutrition experts will want to solve the problem of some families’ insufficient access to safe and nutritious foods.