There may be hundreds, even thousands, of such classrooms all over the country today. In 1996, when the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) made its last anthropometric survey, eight of every 100 preschool children (0-5 years), or some 890,000 in all, were already found to be moderately underweight.

Five of every 100 of the preschoolers-or 540,000 altogether-were "stunted," or were lacking in height for their age. About 490,000 preschoolers were also considered "wasted," or thin.

The government aims to cut these numbers by half by year 2000. Already, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) has allotted P9.6 million for so-called community-based nutrition action programs in more than 40 selected municipalities with the highest prevalence of malnutrition. The Council is also undertaking a more massive information campaign aimed at "deepening the public's nutrition consciousness."

But to really solve the problem of malnutrition, the government needs to give attention to the one key factor it has overlooked all these years: the mothers.

Nutrition experts do not tire of repeating how women are responsible for the feeding and caring of the family, and how the proper nourishment of children lies heavily on the mothers. Yet the women themselves are largely ignored by the government and hardly appear in government statistics in health and nutrition. This is why Cebu City health officer Dr. Amparo Florida can only offer statements like: "We have no specific statistics, but I can sweepingly say that the mothers (here) are anemic."

"Clearly there is lack of knowledge about women's health," says Dr. Florence Tadiar of the non-government Women's Health Care Foundation based in Manila. "Hardly does government know what women's health needs are."

Tadiar also stresses that women of all ages, not just mothers, need to be monitored. What should be done, she says, is to do research on the health needs of girls and women in different age groups: from infancy, to adolescence, and post-menopausal.

Yet even official statistics that are segregated by gender may be inaccurate because they leave out crucial factors. According to the National Statistics Office, for instance, Filipino women live longer by five years than the men, who have a life expectancy of 66 years. But when the United Nations Development Program analyzed the life expectancy rates in different countries, and took into consideration what it called the "natural survival value" of women, the women's "real" life expectancy ended up being lower than that of the men.

The difference was small-about 0.5 percent-but as medical anthropologist Michael Tan observes, it was "significant enough to emphasize that we still have a long way to go toward improving women's health." Tan made a study of women's health in 1992, and found that when using a life-cycle approach, women are revealed to be suffering more health problems than what official statistics normally discuss.

Indeed, women all over the world are silently bearing the burden of not being noticed enough. A 1993 World Bank report estimates that 450 million adult women in poor countries like the Philippines are stunted as a result of malnutrition during childhood. The causes of malnutrition, it says, include inadequate food supply, lack of knowledge about nutritional foods, and inequitable distribution of food within the household.

The new administration of President Joseph Estrada, whose battlecry is food security, offers some hope. In his inaugural speech, Estrada even pledged, "Sisiguraduhin kong may pagkain sa hapag-kainan araw-araw (I will make sure there is food on every table each day) ."

Both nutrition experts and famished families appreciate Estrada's pronouncements. But Estrada faces tough challenges ahead in making good his word. After all, the matter of food security is not simply producing food and making it available to people. It also means distributing food equitably within families. And for any food security program to be effective, it must take women's role into account.

Women's groups like to point out that food security "is a gendered issue." They say while women produce the food and cook the meal, women and girls still get less food than men and boys. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has made the same observation, noting that "in some regions, men and boys eat first; whatever is left is then distributed among the women and girls." The women and girls eat less food that is of less nutritive value.

The women's role in food production also remains largely invisible to governments. For generations, wives have worked side by side their husbands in the fields. According to official figures, women make up 47 percent of the agricultural labor force. It was only recently, however, that the women's contribution in agriculture started to be taken note of. ISIS International, a non-government organization, has said that if the issues of women in relation to food security will not be addressed, "there will be no food security at all."

In the meantime, food security to women in places like Barangay Bongdo in Borbon town in Cebu has been reduced to having a half a bowl of corn lugaw leftovers, which they scrape from the plates of children and husbands.

There has been nothing but hunger in Cebu's drought-stricken areas. And if what has happened here is to be an indication of how officials react to a food crisis, then Estrada may well end up eating his words.

As late as last month, for instance, Bongdo had yet to receive anything from the local government. This despite a provincial board resolution declaring Cebu under a state of calamity as early as last December 3. But the declaration apparently had been downplayed because of two major events scheduled then: the annual Sinulog fiesta, and the ASEAN Tourism Forum, both of which were held in January.

According to Dominica Chua of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc (RAFI), the tourism board member did not want it known there was a water problem, worried that such news would mar the then ongoing publicity for the Tourism Forum.

RAFI had been among many NGOs raring to help communities hit by El Niño. But in late December and until January this year, there was no discernable movement from the local government. Discussions about the drought were limited to agricultural damage. "Nothing was being said about the living conditions of the people," says Chua. "We were looking for an admission from the government that there is a problem because there is. They didn't have to deny it."

By then, RAFI and the other NGOs had already made an early assessment of El Niño's impact and had determined which communities most needed immediate aid. In February, the groups approached local government officials to arrange for possible relief operations. But they were told that the Cebu government could not move just yet. It was then still the campaign season for the May 11 polls, and the local officials feared they would be charged with "electioneering" if they conducted relief efforts at that time.

"The local government officials told us to wait until after the elections so we did," says Chua. "Then they still moved slowly."

It was not until April that the Cebu City board declared the mountain barangays under a state of calamity. The city social welfare officials then conducted assessments of the areas, and by the end of that month began a series of a series of food distribution operations. They covered the 6,000 families in the city's mountain areas.

Fortunately for Bongdo, RAFI has reached it finally and has distributed relief goods. RAFI and other NGOs have helped 6,000 families as well, all living outside the city. But though nobly given and gratefully received, the relief items both from the government and the NGOs can feed a family of six for only a week. And then it's back to lugaw.

And so Bongdo farmer Josefina Flores keeps on praying for the rains to come, even if weather authorities now warn of the ill effects of the coming La Niña. Her family and her neighbors have started to plant new seeds, but they know it will take a while before they reap a good harvest again. "Then hopefully," says Josefina, "there will be more food for my children."