The HFE Bill is a vital step toward protecting Filipino families and children from the rising burden of obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and other diet-related diseases. By mandating warning labels, restricting harmful food marketing, and keeping schools safe from unhealthy promotions, the bill empowers consumers to make informed choices and holds the food industry accountable.
We need your help to achieve this. Every Filipino deserves a food environment that puts health over profit. Let’s sign the petition together and call on our legislators to pass the HFE Bill for a healthier future for all!
The HFE Bill is a vital step toward protecting Filipino families and children from the rising burden of obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and other diet-related diseases. By mandating warning labels, restricting harmful food marketing, and keeping schools safe from unhealthy promotions, the bill empowers consumers to make informed choices and holds the food industry accountable.
We need your help to achieve this. Every Filipino deserves a food environment that puts health over profit. Let’s sign the petition together and call on our legislators to pass the HFE Bill for a healthier future for all!
We urge our legislators to take immediate action in preventing childhood overweight, obesity, and premature deaths due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by enacting the Healthy Food Environment Bill. [1]
We believe that:
THE ISSUE
NCDs like heart disease, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease account for at least half of all deaths in the Philippines [2], affecting children earlier and more severely than ever. Recent estimates also show that 12.9% of children aged 5 to 10 and 12.5% of adolescents are overweight or obese. Among adults, the numbers rise significantly: 17.3% are overweight and 39.8% are obese. The elderly are also not spared, with 19% overweight and 32.6% obese [3]. These lifelong health risks are fueled by poor diets and misleading marketing of unhealthy food and beverage products fueling these lifelong health risks [4]. Our current food environment, specifically our labeling system and marketing practices, does not enable Filipinos to make healthy and informed food choices that will help prevent NCDs.
This is a systemic failure, and it demands systemic reform.
WHAT WE CAN DO
SUPPORT THE HEALTHY FOOD ENVIRONMENT BILL!
Chronic diseases shouldn’t be a life sentence, and our food system shouldn’t be part of the problem.
The HFE Bill offers evidence-based and people-centered interventions to address the issues identified above. Supported by legislators, health experts, and civil society, the HFE Bill proposes:
These interventions are already being implemented in other countries like Chile, Mexico, and Argentina, among others, and have led to healthier consumer behavior and reformulation of unhealthy products.
The HFE Bill will enable Filipinos to make informed food choices, encourage reformulation of unhealthy food and beverages, and establish a healthy food environment for ALL Filipinos.
The growing legislative and stakeholder support for the bill reflects the urgent need to address the structural drivers of poor nutrition and diet-related diseases in the Philippines.
The message is clear: protecting Filipino families, especially children, from preventable diseases starts with transforming the food environment. Together, we can create a better and healthier food environment for all Filipinos.