Beneficiaries of the food stamp program are required to be part of job programs of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Sunday.

In an interview with dzBB, Social Welfare and Development Undersecretary Eduardo Punay said food stamp beneficiaries should have jobs to prevent them from being dependent on aid from the government.

“We want to end our countrymen’s culture of dependency on assistance. We want them to have a job,” Punay said.

“That’s why for them to stay in the food program one of the requirements is for them to enroll in job-generating programs of DOLE and TESDA. They need to submit certificates as proof that they are searching for jobs,” he added.

The food stamp program aims to provide electronic benefit transfers that will be loaded with food credits amounting to P3,000 to purchase a select list of food commodities from DSWD accredited local retailers. It will be pilot-tested in the second half of the year.

Punay said the DSWD and the Philippine Statistics Authority have identified one million “food-poor” families as beneficiaries of the food stamp program.

He defined food-poor families as those who earn P8,000 and below.

“The design of this food program is multipurpose. You can see that the DSWD is evolving. We are no longer just distributing aid like the public is used to. We are also ensuring that our beneficiaries don’t become used to just receiving and receiving,” he said.

“The principal objective of this is to address involuntary hunger…that’s why the title of this program is Walang Gutom (No Hunger),” he added.

The DSWD has allocated P40 billion for the implementation of the food stamp program for next year.

Punay said the DSWD will partner with the Department of Agriculture’s Kadiwa outlets as well as retailers, grocery stores, wet markets, medium and small enterprises.

He said the food credits will not be converted to cash and non-transferable to prevent abuses.

“The food stamp cannot be converted to cash and cannot be transferable because this will include biometrics. Each time the card is used it will require the fingerprint of the beneficiary,” Punay said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS