Lawmaker Criticizes DepDev’s Claim That P84/Day Is Enough for Nutritious Meals
A lawmaker lambasted DepDev’s claim that P84 is enough for a Filipino to afford nutritious meals in a day.
Recently, Kamanggagawa Party-list Representative Elijah San Fernando strongly criticized the Department of Economic Planning and Development (DepDev) for saying that P84 is enough for a Filipino to afford nutritious meals in a day.
During budget deliberations, DepDev revealed its 2025 food poverty threshold, set at P12,832 per month for a family of five. This translates to P422 per day, or about P84 per person daily. According to the agency, this amount is supposedly sufficient for a person to avoid hunger while still having access to healthy food.
However, the solon rejected the computation and argued that such a figure is far from reality. He pointed out how difficult it is to buy balanced meals with just P84, especially with the rising prices of food and other necessities.
For him, the statement not only shows a disconnect from the everyday struggles of ordinary Filipinos but also risks misleading the public and policymakers.
San Fernando went on to challenge DepDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan to prove that P84 is truly enough by joining him in the market. He stressed that real-life costs should be the basis for government policies, not just numbers on paper.
The lawmaker emphasized the danger of using unrealistic data in crafting programs meant to fight poverty. He explained that workers and their families live with these struggles daily, and policies that ignore the actual cost of living fail to provide genuine solutions.
San Fernando reminded the government that food security and fair wages cannot be addressed with mere estimates but require practical and compassionate measures grounded in the true cost of living.