Destructive typhoons and delays in the release of funds for the government's feeding program led hunger incidence to a record-high 19 percent in the past three months, the Department of Social Welfare and Development said Tuesday.

DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the country is still recovering from a series of destructive typhoons that hit Metro Manila and major parts of Luzon and the Visayas in the latter part of 2006.

She added that delays in the approval of a supplemental budget for the government's feeding program might have aggravated the country's hunger problem as seen in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

"We did not use a significant amount for the supplementary feeding [program]. Ngayon pa lang kami maglalabas (It is only now that we are releasing) [money} for the program," Cabral said.

Senators earlier questioned about P6 billion in elementary and pre-school feeding funds, which, they said, could be diverted to the 2007 election campaign of administration candidates.

Congress later agreed to allocate part of the funds for the construction of new school buildings and hiring of additional teachers to ease the country's classroom and teacher shortage. The bicameral panel also agreed to allocate P2 billion to distribute food supplements such as milk, coco-pandesal, and vegetable-based noodles to address the malnutrition problem among some school children.

A SWS survey revealed that at least one in five Filipino households or a total of 3.4 million households experienced starvation at least once in the past three months.

Hunger went up by three points in Metro Manila, from 17.7 percent in November last year to 20.7 percent in February 2007. It rose slightly in the rest of Luzon from 17.7 percent to 18.3 percent, and hardly changed in Mindanao, from 22.3 percent in the previous quarter to 22.7 percent.

Hunger declined by nearly four points in Visayas, from 19 percent in November to 15.3 percent in February.

Cabral said the decline in hunger incidence in the Visayas could be attributed to a boost in agricultural production and tourism in the region last year. "Visayas had a good year, as far as crop production and tourism are concerned," she added.

She pointed out that the country's hosting of the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cebu in January led to an increase in jobs for many Visayan residents.