Lawmakers on Friday urged the national government to take on the cause of some 340,000 people in evacuation camps in Central Mindanao and take the place of suspended United Nations aid missions in the war-torn region due to the recent series of bombings.

Nueva Ecija Rep. Edno Joson, vice chairman of the House Committee on Food Security, said the government can tap the National Food Authority (NFA) in food relief operations in the south after the UN World Food Program (WFP) suspended all its aid missions there.

“The NFA should now take the lead role in continuing the food mission left by the UN agency,” Joson said.

He said it is about time the country stop relying too much on foreign aid, especially when it comes to feeding its own people.

“Hindi na dapat tayo umasa sa mga foreigners at foreign aid. ‘Yung internal problems na gawa rin natin tayo dapat ang gumawa ng remedy. Alisin ang beggar mentality and let us solve our own problems,” he said.

Joson, who served as NFA administrator during the Estrada regime, said the agency is capable of feeding people displaced by armed conflict in Mindanao given the fact that it provides rice subsidy to about 10 percent of the country’s population of 92 million through its rice imports.