MANILA, Philippines - Kill hunger, not the hungry.

Sen. Grace Poe made the statement in an apparent swipe at the government’s war on illegal drugs.

“They said the fight against hunger is not sexy and the war on drugs is more exciting. Yes, we have a problem with that too but hunger – it is a problem of many. We should kill hunger, not the hungry,” she said in Filipino.

The war on drugs, a centerpiece effort of President Duterte, has already resulted in the death of more than six thousand “drug users and pushers” from either various Philippine National Police operations or attacks by unidentified assailants.

Poe, who attended a food forum on malnutrition in Makati City Wednesday, said that the Philippines is a vital market for the international community but this would be useless if its citizens are hungry.

She cited in her almost 20-minute speech a 2015 Social Weather Stations survey that showed 2.6 million families or about 12 million Filipinos experience involuntary hunger.

Although the figures have since gone down, the lawmaker who ran against Duterte in the past election urged the government to focus on programs that would help raise the Filipino’s standard of living and improve the nutrition of every Filipino child.

Poe believes the country could improve socially and economically if the government has a good nutrition program as she pointed to a 2013 UNICEF report that showed the Philippines as the ninth nation in the world with the highest incidents of stunting, with a record 3.6 million stunted children.

She noted that malnutrition leads to poor performance in school and diminishes the children’s intellectual abilities when they grow up.

“This affects performance at work and it would result in economic hardships for these individuals and their families,” Poe added.

As author of Senate Bill 160 or the Libreng Pananghalian sa Pampublikong Paaralan Act, she proposes to institutionalize a feeding program in all public elementary and high schools nationwide.

She hopes that the bill, currently on second reading, would be approved.

Poe also wants farmers, who put food on our tables but are growing hungry themselves, to have wider access to credit and training programs that could improve on their marketing and management skills.