Department of Social Welfare and Development Undersecretary for Innovations Edu Punay checks the vegetables at a mobile Kadiwan store during the pilot implementation of Marcos administration鈥檚 flagship project, Walang Gutom 2027: Food Stamp Program, in Tondo, Manila, on Wednesday, October 18, 2023. | PHOTO: office聽of聽Usec.聽Punay
A Manila lawmaker on Thursday called on the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to allow food stamp cards to be used in private establishments, like supermarkets, groceries and drugstores.
Manila Rep. Joel Chua made the suggestion as he pointed out that there are 鈥渘ot enough鈥� government-run stores like the Kadiwa and the Department of Trade and Industry鈥檚 (DTI) rolling stores to serve beneficiaries of the food stamp program.
The partner merchants tapped by the DSWD under the program are the Kadiwa centers, which were initiated by President Marcos for more affordable food and other commodities amid skyrocketing prices in the market.
Other partners include the micro, small and medium enterprises and some big supermarkets.
Each family chosen by the DSWD for the program鈥檚 pilot testing will have P3,000 worth of food points, which can be used as payment for purchasing food items in accredited stores.
READ: DSWD food stamp program set for full pilot launch in December
According to Chua, since next year鈥檚 beneficiary target would be 300,000 households, it may not be enough to serve them by just entirely relying on the Kadiwa and DTI stores, and building and deploying more of them would be 鈥渢oo costly.鈥�
鈥淚nstead of spending to build more of these government stores, it is much less costly to accredit and involve already established supermarkets, groceries and drugstores for the EBT (electronic benefits transfer card) rollout,鈥� Chua said in a statement.
He also suggested that the EBT cards be 鈥渃onfigured,鈥� meaning it can be 鈥渁s portable as debit purchase cards鈥� and usable at electronically and internet-connected retail outlets.
Chua prodded the DSWD to also make the EBT cards of the food stamps program more portable or have the purchase conditions removed, believing that such limits and conditions would be 鈥渆xtremely difficult鈥� to be imposed on privately owned stores.
One condition that he noted was the 鈥渟uitable alternate鈥� holder of the EBT card if the beneficiary household has no mother, spouse or common-law wife.