It took Governor Junie Cua of Cagayan Valley’s youngest province to admit that the National Nutrition Council is an insignificant agency of the government.
Then Congressman Junie Cua saw a very small agency and possibly asked himself what can a negligible agency do for the Filipino people. His perception dramatically changed when he joined local governance as Governor.
When one is in local governance, the official is on the ground. He is looking into the eyes and heart of people he was there to serve. Such was the case with Cua and possibly all local government officials in the region.
During this year’s regional nutrition awards ceremonies held at Santiago City, the Governor was singing a different tune. He said ‘good governance is good nutrition.’ He has become an instant convert when he saw what the council was all about. Suddenly, he realized how huge the role and significance of the agency was as it encompasses one of the nucleus of development.
In particular, he zeroed in on the front-liners of nutrition; volunteer workers who continuously made a difference in the country’s quest for good health and nutrition among the populace.
In cities and up to the most secluded communities in the Philippines, they are there. They are called Barangay Nutrition Scholars. Created under Presidential Degree 1569 on June 11, 1978, the BNS have since then became the front liners, the direct line of the government in the delivery of nutrition services.
As of August 2017, some 46,293 BNS have been deployed in the country who are given a BNS Conference every two years. In the Cagayan Valley region, at least 2, 439 of them are making the difference in their kind of job.
Majority of this year’s Outstanding BNS have one thing in common; they are motivated and commitment is what keeps them going.
In a message by Director Rio Magpantay of the Department of Health, chair of the Regional Nutrition Committee and read by Nerissa Mabbayad, Regional Technical Assistant on Nutrition (RTAN), he said the yearly award is a celebration of the triumphs of individuals in the service of the people.
“We recollect their efforts in championing nutrition towards building a healthier community,” he said.
He added that the achievements of these ground forces serve as an approach in pushing proper nutrition to the forefront of health issues.
To the uninitiated, these workers are not your ordinary workers who check on your child’s weight loss or gain. These workers are not only your volunteer workers who reprimands you on what you should do to assure the health of your unborn and to continuously monitor your child.
These are the bunch of volunteers who work to reduce the prevalence rate of malnutrition among moderate and severe cases of pre-schoolers and school children.
Like the rest of her counterpart in the country, Maria Gisela Lonzaga, regional nutrition coordinator for region 2, is proud of these foot soldiers.
“They are committed to their work and they accept no excuses but results,” Lonzaga said.
Unfortunately, because of budgetary constraints of the local government units, they can only receive what is termed as honorarium for all their efforts which make their jobs exemplary and they, at the pinnacle of what service should be.
If we are to savor the statement of Governor Cua during the awarding ceremonies, isn’t it time for Congress to enact a law dramatically establishing a separate agency for NNC for all its efforts of creating a conducive policy environment for national and local nutrition planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and surveillance?
It has been 44 years since Presidential Decree No. 491, or the Nutrition Act of the Philippines, was promulgated. Considering the scope of its mandate yet with only a skeletal force in its regional coordinating offices, the agency is ripe enough to be weaned from its mother agency, the Department of Health.
After all, the agency teems with committed and results-driven individuals who are silently working to ensure good health to all of us; the Barangay Nutrition Scholars.
