The Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) as the country’s blueprint of actions for nutrition improvement is now set in motion as the National Nutrition Council (NNC), together with key national and local stakeholders, launched PPAN 2017-2022 in Iloilo City.
Health Secretary and NNC Governing Board Chair Paulyn Jean B. Rosell-Ubial led the launching along with Assistant Secretary of Health and NNC Executive Director Maria-Bernardita T. Flores who presented PPAN and turned it over to the country’s 38 priority areas.
Iloilo province is one of the 38 priority areas of PPAN identified because of the large numbers of stunted children, Ubial said.
The PPAN launching was aimed at presenting to stakeholders involved in its implementation targets for various forms of malnutrition and the corresponding programs needed to address these.

Flores said NNC has always pushed for the cultivation of the public’s appreciation of nutrition, especially the local government units (LGUs) for integrating nutrition in their political and development agenda.
The commitments generated from key stakeholders during the launching was hoped to help pitch the PPAN to its success.
“The PPAN has ambitious targets, particularly stunting. Experts estimate that a doable reduction in stunting from 33.4 percent would be about 28 percent,” Ubial said in her speech during the launching.
However, Ubial said, the NNC governing board challenged itself and stakeholders to target a reduction to 21 percent.
“This would entail targeting at least 90 percent of pregnant women and children for programs, increasing resource commitments by national government agencies and local government counterparts,” she said.
Before revealing the ambitious target, Ubial quoted a newspaper column by former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito who said “the time bomb is slowly ticking and is left invisible and silent.”
Ubial said the ticking bomb Habito was referring to was the 33 percent of Filipino children who are now stunted.
Habito added “in 15 to 20 years, these stunted children, if they survived, will enter the work force and instead of driving the engine of the economy, will become the burden of society.”
“And because malnutrition permeates into the next generation, the cycle continues,” he added.
Ubial said “we are therefore at a crossroads where decision and actions must be made that will have an impact on our children and the children of the future.”
Habito’s column was an urgent call among all Filipinos.
“This is the challenge that we all must take. Let us stop the stunting bomb before it blows in our face. Let us work together to prevent malnutrition for our children, our people and our country,” Ubial said.
The DOH-NNC slogan is “Sa PPAN, Panalo ang Bayan.”

-By EDWIN O. FERNANDEZ (Nutri-DOSE)