GOVT URGED TO END POVERTY AND HUNGER

APART from the country’s serious campaign against illegal drugs, the government should also give emphasis to the crisis of poverty and hunger, a senator said on Tuesday.

- mit held in Ateneo de Manila University that aims to improve public- private collaboration to create solutions to hunger, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian noted that the of simultaneously focusing on drugs and poverty and hunger just the same crisis by 50 percent in the previous year.

“[It’s not] instant, but we really - ciently,” Gatchalian told reporters.

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said the Philippines has a much higher poverty and hunger rate with 20.1 14.7 percent in year 2015.

The IPRI based its data on four components--undernourishment, child wasting, child mortality and child stunting.

According to the IFPRI, the country has a 33 percent case of - nam with only 19.4 percent.

On child wasting, the Philippines has a 7.9 percent rate while

On child mortality of children - proved by 52.9 percent while the Philippines only had 49.2 percent.

According to Gatchalian, although the country is doing its own efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, established programs

In the same summit, Sen. Grace Poe, a losing candidate for the presidency in the May 2016 elections, also called on the government to enhance its efforts to arrest malnutrition and hunger.

[We see that the product of hun- ger is visible in a person’s face and thin body]” Poe said.

She cited a Social Weather Stations survey that showed more than three million Filipino families still experience hunger.

“We have about 3.1 million families that are hungry, so if you the average number of members of a family, that’s 15 million. That’s more [serious] than the problem on drugs,” Poe said.

“I think that we should strengthen - ing hunger. We can do that alongside with other priorities,” she added.