Mayor Jul-Adnan Hataman: Countering Malnutrition through Sumisip CARES 

When Mayor Jul-Adnan P. Hataman won the election in Sumisip, Basilan in 2019, he knew little about nutrition. He admitted, “I used to think that nutrition was just about school feeding and a nutrition month celebration.”

Despite his initial lack of knowledge, Sumisip saw some improvements in nutrition in recent years. From 2020 to 2021, stunting rates dropped from 34.8% to 27.74%, wasting decreased from 9.57% to 3.57%, and low birth weight rates fell from 1.34% to 0.37%.

However, other indicators worsened. Operation Timbang (OPT) coverage dropped from 65.2% in 2020 to 59.5% in 2021, below the 90% national target. Indicators like Iron Folic Acid (IFA0, facility-based delivery (FBD), skilled birth attendants (SBA), and fully immunized child (FIC) were also below the national target.

In early 2019, Dr. Maria Rosalie De Guzman, a doctor to the barrio (DTTB) from Cavite, came to Sumisip. She continues to serve the municipality to this day—three years more than the required 2-year service for DTTB. Dr. De Guzman inspired local health workers to work and serve in their own communities. Mayor Hataman supported her by providing transportation and accommodation. 

The municipality faced challenges filling health office positions due to safety concerns. Mayor Hataman appointed a Municipal Nutrition Action Officer (MNAO), and the Ministry of Health in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MOH-BARMM) assigned an additional nutrition officer to help.

Involving the youth in initiatives like Kamakanakan Sumisip (Youth of Sumisip) also helped. Despite these efforts, the nutrition situation remained challenging.

When the Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) invited Mayor Hataman to join the Municipal Nutrition Governance Program (MNGP) in January 2022, he immediately agreed.  He knew he would learn a lot from the initiative, since his father was once a participant of a ZFF program. He knew, too, that he needed all the support that he could get to improve the municipality’s nutrition situation.

Challenging Situation

Sumisip, a municipality in Basilan with 567.60 square kilometers and a population of 47,345, faces significant health and nutrition challenges. Mayor Hataman and his team joined the MNGP in early 2022 to address these issues, focusing on improving health and nutrition for women and children.

Key challenges include an inactive nutrition committee, a lack of human resources, and harmful cultural beliefs and feeding practices. Some caregivers introduced solid food to infants too early, leading to health problems, while others failed to provide a varied diet.

In July 2022, as part of the MNGP, Mayor Hataman and his team participated in a Deep Dive activity in Barangay Mangal, the municipality’s most populated area, to understand these challenges firsthand. They visited a family struggling with poverty and poor nutrition practices. The mayor, disguised as a nurse, learned about the family’s struggles, including the lack of immunization and proper feeding for their child, baby Sirkan.

“Before I joined the MNGP, I didn’t have any knowledge about nutrition. But the opportunity has been given to us through this program so that we can calibrate ourselves and learn new nutrition theory to improve services,” he said. “[Through the Deep Dive,] I was able to see the magnitude of the malnutrition problem. It made me realize our roles not only as LGU officials but even as parents. We neglected the program, from the stage of pregnancy up to the proper rearing and care of children in our locality.”

This experience highlighted the importance of health workers and the impact of poverty and education on nutrition and family planning. Inspired by these insights, Mayor Hataman and his team developed Sumisip CARES (Community Assistance Reforms through Emerging Synergy), launched in September 2022, to provide immediate and long-term interventions to combat malnutrition.

Initiatives and Actions

Mayor Hataman and his team implemented the following initiatives:

• Strengthening the Local Nutrition Committees. Mayor Hataman and his team improved the local nutrition committees by reorganizing and expanding the Municipal Nutrition Committee (MNC) members. They held regular meetings to discuss nutrition issues, involving 10 out of the 29 barangays and forming Barangay Nutrition Committees (BNCs).
• Developing Policy-Based Investment Mechanisms. They created a three-year Local Nutrition Action Plan (LNAP) for 2023-2025 with a budget of Php 48,297,800 to ensure the sustainability of nutrition programs. The plan itemized the budget for sectors like agriculture, social protection, and health. Mayor Hataman approved this plan in March 2023.

• Rallying Support of Barangays for Nutrition. Understanding the severity of malnutrition, Mayor Hataman identified 10 barangays with the highest stunting rates. He held an executive session with barangay leaders, urging them to address the problem together. Seven barangay captains attended and became more active in tackling malnutrition issues.
• Recognition Program for Barangays. Mayor Hataman announced a recognition program to incentivize barangays improving their nutrition indicators through the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG).
• Crafting Six-Month Action Plans with Barangays. During the executive session, they developed six-month action plans, reorganized the BNCs, and identified Barangay Nutrition Action Officers to ensure coordinated nutrition activities.
• Mainstreaming Nutrition in Sumisip CARES. The program, which aims to make basic and social services accessible, now includes nutrition interventions. It prioritizes households with severely malnourished children, providing food assistance, agricultural seeds, and regular monitoring. The Sumisip HELPS (Heightening Employment Livelihood Program and Services) program extends livelihood assistance to poor families. The Municipal Government of Sumisip also collaborates with the Provincial Government of Basilan, which provides agricultural and livestock resources and ensures that nutrition services are always available.

Way Forward

Three years into Mayor Hataman’s leadership, Sumisip still faces challenges with malnutrition despite various efforts. Issues like unstable peace and order, migration, and difficult access to health facilities have made progress slow.

However, there have been some positive changes. The coverage for Operation Timbang (OPT) increased from 45.8% in 2022 to 54.98% in 2023, though it’s still below the national target of 90%. Stunting rates also dropped from 36.54% in 2022 to 31.25% in 2023 and 24.10% in 2024, though they remain above the national target of 21.4%.

These improvements, while modest, are steps in the right direction. Mayor Hataman remains committed to bettering the situation with support from the province, barangay leaders, his nutrition team, and ZFF. He encourages everyone to celebrate the progress and continue working towards a healthier future. He said, “This is us, healing from the wounds of the past. And this is us, proving na malayo na tayo sa Basilan noon (that we have come a long way from the Basilan of old). May we continue to rise above the shadows of our jarring past. May we sustain the gains our leaders have worked for through the years.”