Supreme Court E-Library
Information At Your Fingertips

  View printer friendly version

TO:	The Secretary, Department of Social Welfare The Secretary, Department of Agriculture The Secretary, Department of Education & Culture The Secretary, Department of Health The Secretary, Department of Local Governments and
		Community Development
	The Commissioner, Budget Commission The Chairman, National Science Development Board The Chairman, National Nutrition Council

WHEREAS, under the New Society, the government and the private sector have joined hands to launch a nationwide nutrition program under the auspices of the First Lady;

WHEREAS, "Operation  Timbang" has  pinpointed  and identified the extent of malnutrition among our pre-school children throughout the country as a first step toward eradicating malnutrition in the nation;

WHEREAS, many different government agencies and instrumentalities are involved in the far reaching and complex efforts to solve malnutrition as identified by "Operation Timbang", the entire effort now being coordinated by the National Nutrition Council;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines do hereby issue the following instructions to the different agencies concerned:

1. The Department of Social Welfare is hereby designated as the principal agency in charge of a nationwide food assistance program to reach malnourished children identified by Operation Timbang.  Such a program should primarily concentrate on the second degree malnourished.  For this purpose, the Department of Social Welfare shall:
   1. obtain local food commodities.
   2. established a nutrition unit within its organizational structure, including a field force which will plan, implement, and monitor the distribution of such food commodities and to coordinate with other government agencies involved in the food distribution program as well as undertake an organized nutrition education activity among the mothers of pre-school children.
   3. is also directed to channel this program through the barangay network throughout the country.  In this connection, such additional budgetary allocations as maybe reasonably required to carry out the provisions of this directive are hereby authorized.
2. The Department of Agriculture, through the National Food and Agriculture Council and the Bureau of Agricultural  Extension is hereby directed to:
   1. mount a production program through the National Food and Agriculture Council, in coordination with Green Revolution Movement and the Department of Education and Culture, to increase the production of legumes, beans, vegetables, fruits, livestock, poultry, and fishery products in support of the Philippine  Nutrition Program;
   2. provide extension services, through the Bureau of Agricultural Extension, in order to   extend nutrition education to farm housewives throughout the country.  In this connection, the Bureau of Agricultural Extension shall program sufficient funds in Fiscal Year 1977 for an additional five hundred (500) Home Management Technicians, whose activities shall be coordinated by the National Nutrition Council and shall be under the directives of the Chairman   of the National Nutrition Council, as nutrition extension agents  in the implementation of the Philippine Nutrition Program.  The Budget Commission hereby directed to allocate funds as  may be reasonably possible for this purpose.
3. The Department of Education and Culture is hereby directed to include subjects on basic nutrition and techniques in nutrition education in the school curriculum at all levels  and in allied courses such as Medicine, Nursing, Agriculture, Midwifery, Social Work, and Education.  This shall pertain to both  government as well as privately owned schools.
4. The Department of Health, through its National Nutrition Service, is hereby directed to be the principal agency responsible for the treatment and rehabilitation of severely malnourished  children using the Mal-Wards in its hospitals and its Rural Health Units for the purpose and to obtain food commodity support from the Nutrition Center of the Philippines as may be needed.
5. The Department of Local Governments and Community Development is hereby directed to established functioning nutrition committees in every region, province, city, municipality,  and  most particularly, to assist the sub-barangay nutrition unit composed of twenty households each, with its own unit Header to implement a national nutrition plan.
   
   All committees at their level are also hereby directed to formulate a plan for their respective jurisdiction to be compiled and integrated at the different levels culminating in a national nutrition plan put together by the National Nutrition Council.
   
   
6. The National Science Development Board is hereby directed to allocate adequate funds to support Food and Nutrition re searches and related studies as are duly certified by the National Nutrition Council to be priority research projects needed to implement the Philippine Nutrition Program.
7. The Budget Commission is hereby directed to place Food and Nutrition programs as one of the top priority programs of the New Society, in whichever department of the government it may be located.  It is also hereby directed to implement the various directives contained here and above. Such reasonable budgets as maybe required by each department to carry out the directives issued above shall be approved by the Budget Commission.
8. The National Nutrition Council is hereby directed to:
   1. provide allowances obtained from the National Economic  Development Authority and other international agencies for all field nutrition workers;
   2. to establish a national nutrition surveilance scheme, and
   3. to coordinate with other ASEAN countries on possible regional surveillance and other  nutrition programs as maybe feasibly implemented for the whole region.
   
   All purchase of equipment and capital outlay needed by each of the nutrition programs of each of the various government cooperating agencies here and above, involved in the nutrition program  is hereby authorized as an exception to Memorandum Circular No. 593, Series, of 1972, upon prior favorable-endorsement of the National Nutrition Council.

This Letter of Instructions shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila this 31st day of July, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-six.