News Commentary
A healthier nation starts with nutrition-responsive UHC and strong leadership
Alvin Manalansan – Philstar.com
July 18, 2026 | 5:35pm
We extend our warmest congratulations to Dr. Jose Britannio Pujalte Jr. on his appointment as secretary of health. His leadership comes at a pivotal moment for the country’s health sector—one marked by urgent challenges and unprecedented opportunities to advance Universal Health Care (UHC), strengthen preventive health systems, and champion nutrition as a cornerstone of national development
Designated as Nutrition Month under Presidential Decree No. 491, July serves as a national platform for raising awareness and mobilizing action to improve the nutritional status of Filipinos. Since 2024, the campaign has followed the theme “Sa PPAN, Sama-Sama sa Nutrisyong Sapat Para sa Lahat,” with annual subthemes aligned with the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition. For 2026, “Nutrition at Kalikasan, Ating Pangalagaan” highlights the link between nutrition, environmental protection, and climate action. As climate-related disruptions worsen food insecurity and malnutrition, integrating nutrition and climatere-sponsive strategies into UHC is essential for resilient, equitable health services
We, as part of UHC Watch, reaffirm that good nutrition is fundamental to achieving UHC and improving the health and well-being of every Filipino. Nutrition is not an optional add-on to health reform—it is a core determinant of survival, growth, and longterm human development. A health system that fails to address malnutrition cannot claim to be universal, equitable, or preventive
This call for stronger nutrition integration is not new. Merely three years ago, in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2023 State of the Nation Address (SONA), he highlighted the country’s worsening nutrition crisis and its disproportionate impact on children and the poorest Filipino families. He committed to expanding government food and nutrition support programs, including scaling up the Walang Gutom initiative and sustaining feeding interventions in daycare centers and public schools—programs that collectively benefit more than 3.5 million learners nationwide.
As the president prepares his next SONA, reaffirming and expanding these commitments is crucial, especially in light of new evidence from the 2025 Updating Surveyconducted by the Department of Science and Technology – Food and Nutrition Research Institute. These findings underscore the urgency of strengthening nutrition-responsive policies and ensuring that nutrition is fully integrated into the country’s health system reforms
On June 1, 2026, a briefing convened by the House Committee on Health, chaired by Representative Ciriaco Gato Jr., offered a critical and timely assessment of the country’s progress in implementing the UHC Act or Republic Act No. 11223. As the Department of Health (DOH), PhilHealth, and the UHC InterAgency Evaluation Team presented their updates, the hearing made clear that while the UHC Act established a strong reform architecture, several structural, financial, and governance constraints continue to impede its full realization.
The presentations of DOH and PhilHealth underscored this reality. Both agencies acknowledged measurable gains in financial protection, service delivery integration, and health governance, yet emphasized that the law’s current provisions must be recalibrated to reflect evolving demands in financing, workforce deployment, and local government operations. These testimonies reinforced a central truth: UHC is a transformative but continually evolving reform, and its success depends on the country’s ability to adapt its legal and operational frameworks to the dynamic needs of the health sector.
In this context, the DOH outlined several proposed amendments to address longstanding implementation barriers. These proposals together with several pending bills in Congress, reflect a growing recognition among lawmakers that the UHC Act requires structural recalibration. Given this momentum, it is imperative that these proposals be elevated as core priorities in the president’s upcoming SONA.
UHC Watch highly recommends that the president explicitly endorse these measures in the SONA, as doing so would help catalyze congressional action, accelerate policy alignment across national agencies, and reinforce to LGUs that implementing UHC is a shared and coordinated responsibility
In this same spirit, we respectfully appeal for two critical messages to be included in the president’s SONA:
First, the reaffirmation of the core promise of UHC: that no Filipino should be denied access to essential health services and commodities. Every Filipino must have access to quality healthcare throughout the entire continuum of care—from disease prevention and early diagnosis to treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care—without suffering financial hardship. This principle is the moral and policy foundation of UHC, and its reiteration by no less than the president would strengthen public confidence and reinforce the government’s commitment to health equity.
Second, the recognition that digitalization is no longer optionalbut an essential pillar of a responsive, efficient, and resilient healthcare system. Harnessing technology is vital to making government services more accessible and ensuring that no Filipino is left behind in times of illness and financial need. Embedding digital health as a SONA priority would accelerate the rollout of interoperable electronic health records, streamline service delivery, and modernize health governance across all levels of the system.
Equally important—and urgently deserving of SONA level attention—is the explicit integration of nutrition programs into UHC, a critical gap that remains largely unaddressed in public discourse. Nutrition is foundational to preventive health, yet it remains siloed across agencies such as DOH, DSWD, DepEd and LGUs. Embedding nutrition within UHC can be advanced through several pathways. PhilHealth’s YAKAP Program can expand primary care benefits to include nutrition counseling, growth monitoring, and micronutrient supplementation. LGUs can also use the Special Health Fund to support community-based nutrition workers and maternal nutrition initiatives. Nutrition indicators should be embedded in electronic health records to improve early detection of malnutrition and chronic disease risks. Finally, the proposed UHC Coordinating Council can help align nutrition programs across agencies through stronger cross-sectoral governance.
These priorities should be highlighted in the president’s SONA to advance a nutrition-responsive, digitally enabled, and equitable UHC. Most importantly, is the clear support from Secretary Pujalte Jr. who will help drive these reforms, strengthen policy alignment, and signal unified national leadership in ensuring accessible, resilient health services for all Filipinos
Alvin Manalansan is a health and nutrition fellow at the Stratbase Institute and co-convenor of UHC Watch and CitizenWatch Philippines
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