PROFESSIONAL groups rarely ask the government to take urgent action on social, political and economic issues that do not have an impact on their interests. When they write to or petition the government, the issues raised have always been about them. But occasionally, these groups decide to break from their legendary timidity to ask the government to act on a particular issue that does not concern them; the call to action is normally written in very deferential terms, like the petition of meek subjects to their monarchs during the Habsburg era. These groups almost always refrain from penning petitions of power and urgency, probably to avoid ruffling feathers or offending some onion-skinned government official. But In early July 2023, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) broke from that tradition of timidity. It asked the government to forge a government-business-community partnership to carry out urgent public-private-community intervention to rein in a social and educational scourge: child malnutrition. Citing studies from multilateral institutions, the MAP laid out its case for tripartite action to tackle the problem in very stark terms: – A World Bank study found that one in three Filipino children younger than 5 years suffer from stunting. – The Philippines ranks fifth among countries in East Asia and the Pacific with the highest prevalence of child stunting. The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao — which has the highest poverty and illiteracy rates in the country — has a child-stunting rate of 45 percent. United Nations Children's Fund data cited by the MAP showed that 95 Filipino children die every day from malnutrition-related illnesses, and 27 out of 1,000 children do not live beyond 5 years. If ever these malnourished children ever survive, they will mostly grow into sickly adults incapable of performing their basic duties as citizens. The MAP's call to address child malnutrition has provided a proper context for evaluating the effectiveness — or failure — of government-funded child feeding programs in public schools. In 2023, P5.6 billion was allocated for a child-feeding program that was implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd). The Commission on Audit (CoA) group that audited how that sizable amount was spent filed a report that was more than heartbreaking. We are seeing the making of another Pharmally scam but on a lesser scale. This is the gist of what is now known as the Pharmally scam, which is on record as the biggest act of official corruption in the history of a corruption-prone state. More than P47 billion was moved from the Department of Health to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) at the height of the coronavirus pandemic to acquire face masks and other protective gear to fight Covid-19. That amount was squandered through a rigged acquisition process that either delivered substandard and expired items or nothing at all. More than P11 billion of that money involved a purchase contract with a newly incorporated corporation called Pharmally, a joke of a company that can't stand routine regulatory scrutiny. A recent Senate inquiry found out that proceeds from the orgies of graft and corruption done by Pharmally were later reinvested in the Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs) identified with former mayor Alice Guo — also known as Guo Hua Ping — of Bamban, Tarlac. If you think malevolence has its limits, the seamless transfer of money from Pharmally to POGOs shows us there is none. What were the particulars of the CoA audit on the DepEd-implemented P5.6-billion school-feeding program that are heartbreakingly similar to the Pharmally scam, though on a smaller scale? The nutribuns delivered to school districts in Aurora, Bulacan and Misamis Oriental provinces, plus Iligan City and Quezon City, were found "moldy and insect-infested." In those same areas, other food items were found by CoA audit teams in various stages of decay. They found the food processing "unsanitary" and the packaging substandard. In many cases, the expiry details were misleading, allowing the delivery of already expired items to the beneficiary school districts. On top of those three provinces and two cities, another 21 school districts complained of the same rotting, insect-infested food deliveries, CoA findings showed. Members of the House of Representatives, however, had a grimmer version of the food delivered to malnourished children. ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro said the rotting nutribuns and spoiled milk purchased by the DepEd had been delivered to public schools in 10 out of 17 regions in the country. If case you have the patience to read the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report on the deliveries of Pharmally from its P11-billion purchase contract, you will encounter the same phrases: expired and substandard items, mislabeling, and poor packaging. Precious taxpayers' money is spent on rotting and unusable purchases intended for critical and life-saving programs. It's the same heartbreaking story of the more than cavalier use of public money. Public money is used in orgies of reckless and corrupt purchases. The Pharmally purchases were supposed to help rein in the impact of Covid-19 on the public. The DepEd feeding program of 2023 was supposed to help rein in the scourge of child malnutrition. Do you know of any other country where official malevolence has no limits?