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Passage of healthy food environment bill sought

Lawmakers and health experts call for the passage of a bill that seeks to mandate food companies to put front-of-package warning labels for unhealthy food products. During a press conference led by ImagineLaw in Quezon City on May 22, 2026, Iloilo 2nd District Rep. Kathryn Joyce Gorriceta emphasized the urgency of passing the Healthy Food Environment bill, which aims to address the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity in the country by regulating sodium levels, improving food labeling, and curbing the aggressive marketing of unhealthy food products.

VIDEO BY ALLEN LIMOS

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Transcript
00:00The Healthy Food Environment Bill and the House Bill 8286 or the Iwas Alad, Iwas Sakit Act, matter.
00:08House Bill 8286 recognizes a simple but powerful reality.
00:14Prevention begins long before a patient enters a hospital.
00:18It addresses one of the hidden drivers of hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease.
00:25Excess sodium in the food that Filipinos eat every day.
00:28The bill adopts a science-based and stepwise approach to reducing sodium in high-impact food products
00:36such as processed foods, sauces, condiments, and other commonly consumed items.
00:41It allows gradual reformulation so that consumers can adjust and industries can innovate responsibly.
00:49Because this is not about suddenly changing what people eat.
00:53It is about gradually creating a healthier food environment for everyone.
00:59This bill is not about removing freedom of choice.
01:03It is about making the healthy choice the easy choice.
01:08Front-of-back warning labels, responsible food marketing,
01:14clear information for families, smarter food reformulation,
01:18and better protection for consumers should all be considered so that when you buy food after a long day's work,
01:26you are guided, not misled, by what you see on the shelf.
01:31Because prevention does not start in the hospital, prevention starts in the supermarkets, in the kitchen, and in policies.
01:40House Bill 8286 also reminds us that prevention is not only about saving lives.
01:47It is about protecting families for financial hardship.
01:51Government spending for dialysis and chronic diseases treatment continues to rise every year.
01:58Families suffer not only from illness, but from lost income, debt, and years of hardship that could have been prevented.
02:05The cost of prevention is far less than the cost of disease.
02:10Recently, the House Committee on Health approved House Bill 2943,
02:16the Preventive and Lifestyle Medicine Act that I principally authored.
02:21This is a powerful step forward because it recognizes that we cannot treat our way out of non-communicable diseases.
02:30We must prevent our way out.
02:33The Preventive and Lifestyle Medicine Act tells us to teach Filipinos how to live healthy,
02:40while the Healthy Food Environment Bill tells us to make it possible for Filipino to live healthy.
03:20The Preventive and Lifestyle Medicine Act that we cannot treat our way out of non-contained as a living process.
03:20We must have seen the difference in our ways in our country living with a healthy meal.
03:20It is a democràn-minded, a nice family living means,
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