ILOILO City – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has expanded its flagship “Walang Gutom” Food Stamp Program to 15 additional local government units (LGUs) in Western Visayas, widening its reach to more food-insecure households in Antique and Capiz as part of a scaled-up regional anti-poverty drive.
Under the expansion, the program now covers a total of 35 LGUs in the region, with new areas including the island municipality of Caluya in Antique and multiple LGUs in Capiz — Roxas City, Dumalag, Dumarao, Jamindan, Maayon, Mambusao, Pilar, Pontevedra, President Roxas, Sapian, Tapaz, Ivisan, and Panay — on top of its continuing implementation in Iloilo.
Therese Fely Legaste, DSWD regional information officer, said the agency undertook a rigorous verification process to ensure that assistance reaches the most vulnerable households.
“We initially targeted 14,340 individuals for verification, out of which 11,353 have already been confirmed as eligible. This includes 2,194 beneficiaries from Antique, 6,737 from Iloilo, and 2,393 from Capiz,” Legaste said.
She emphasized that beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) are excluded from the Walang Gutom initiative to avoid duplication and to prioritize households not covered by existing cash transfer programs.
DSWD Western Visayas director Joselito Estember said food credit redemption is already underway in the newly covered areas.
“We initiated the redemption process last week, which is now actively occurring in both Capiz and Antique,” Estember said.
Qualified beneficiaries receive P3,000 in monthly food credits through Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, which can be used to buy essential food items such as rice and other carbohydrates, protein sources, and fiber-rich products from accredited retailers.
To ensure transparency and accurate targeting, the list of beneficiaries is drawn from the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) data gathered by the Philippine Statistics Authority, with additional verification mechanisms in place to prevent duplication.
DSWD officials also said food quality and pricing are closely monitored. Retailers participating in the program must be approved by the national project management office, with prices aligned to prevailing regional market rates. A designated staff member conducts regular market surveys to check pricing, with findings reported to the retail management officer for appropriate action.
In 2025, the Walang Gutom program served 42,563 beneficiaries in Western Visayas, including communities in Negros Occidental, Iloilo, and Antique. With the latest expansion, the DSWD aims to further strengthen food security and improve nutrition among low-income households in the region.
The agency said it continues to coordinate with partner agencies, including the Department of Trade and Industry, for monitoring and evaluation, as it ramps up efforts to curb hunger and poverty through targeted, data-driven interventions./PN
