6 March 2017 – Honorable Mayor Lani Mercado-Revilla and the members of the Bacoor City Nutrition Committee accepted the challenge of championing in nutrition during the Advocacy Meeting conducted by the National Nutrition Council Calabarzon Region at the Bacoor City Hall.
Hon. Revilla is one of the local chief executives in the region who realizes the importance of prioritizing nutrition, way before when she was a Congresswoman and appointed as Executive Director for Nutrition in the city. During the meeting, she shared that though she is still a neophyte in the Mayoral position, she is determined to address the nutritional problems of the city namely the underweight, wasted and stunted preschool children and the nutritionally-at-risk pregnant and lactating mothers. She also noted that Bacoor city is consistently at number 1 spot among cities with the highest prevalence of undernutrition in the region in the three indices, and that it is high time for them to address and strategize together with the CNC to develop effective nutrition programs, projects, and activities. She shared to the group that the CNC initially planned for the following activities to be implemented from March onwards: dialogue with the home owners association re approval to conduct OPT plus in subdivisions to increase their OPT coverage; completion of 73 BNSs as job orders under the city government with monthly compensation of P5,000.00; conduct of milk letting campaign in support to breastfeeding; advocacy meeting with all the Barangay Nutrition Committee Chair, Kagawad on Health and BNSs to support and implement nutrition programs at the grassroots level; conduct of 3 batches of trainings for the BNSs to provide and further enhance their knowledge and skills and ; planning of the CNC for 2018; regular CNC meetings; and organization of nutrition cluster; among others.
RNPC Carina Z. Santiago commended the Bacoor CNC for their initiatives and for taking a leap in addressing malnutrition in the city. She assures Hon. Revilla and the members of the CNC that NNC will be there to provide them with the necessary assistance specifically on nutrition program management, technical know-how on formulating the City Nutrition Action Plan (CNAP), documentation report, and providing resource persons in the conduct of the BNS trainings.
The NNC and the Bacoor CNC believes that it is the start of a meaningful and fruitful partnership in fighting malnutrition in the city of Bacoor and the region.
