MANILA, Philippines - Newscaster and TV host Vicky Morales, who gave birth to twin boys three months ago, said her greatest fear was for her children to experience hunger.

?It?s not like my family had overflowing wealth when I was a kid, but there was never a lack of food. Now that I?m a mom, mas naantig ako sa kalagayan ng iba. Hearing about it always makes me run home and breastfeed my babies,? Vicky told Inquirer Entertainment.

Leon Alfonso and Filippo Luis, born on March 8, were eagerly awaited babies, as Vicky and her husband, King Reyno, were married in June 2001.

Tonight, Vicky hosts ?Kalam,? a GMA 7 public affairs special on food security.

?Kalam,? which airs on the SNBO timeslot, takes a look at the issues surrounding hunger and food security in the country, and discusses the impact of the rice crisis elsewhere in the world. Co-hosts are Jiggy Manicad, Jay Taruc and actor Marky Cielo.

?I like doing special reports like this,? said Vicky. ?It?s my way of giving back to the public. More than the material things that we give others, we try to show them solutions. We hope to wake up the people who are supposed to do something about this urgent problem.?

How does the current crisis affect your family?

Part of the reason we?re experiencing food shortage is the fuel shortage. I now ride with my husband to work, in our pick-up truck, which runs on diesel. We no longer use our Ford Expedition, whose full tank of gas costs almost P7,000.

How are the twins doing?

They?re good. Their names are Leon Alfonso and Filippo Luis. Leon is a very royal name. Filippo is the No. 1 name for males in Italy. My husband and I love Italy. We went there for our honeymoon.

Was your pregnancy difficult?

I had to inject medicine into my stomach twice, sometimes thrice, a day. Saksak and go, especially when I had coverage. The injections didn?t hurt. What I had a hard time dealing with were the back pains that came after delivery.

Did you crave anything when you were pregnant?

I ate a lot of fruits. Ako ang nagsasara ng Market! Market! I loved mango, star-apple, banana and seedless watermelon. I vomited a lot in the first few months, but that didn?t stop me from working. I used to bring gag bags to the set of ?Saksi.?

Why didn?t you just take a leave?

I didn?t want to?mas mararamdaman ko kasi ?yung sakit. I filed for maternity leave a week before I gave birth, and was back at work a week after. I was scared of post-partum depression. I was told there were more chances of experiencing it if I were to just sit at home.

As early as now, do you see any difference between the twins?

Yes. We?ve had a lot of magazine pictorials lately. I noticed that one boy is super show biz. He?s masungit at home but in front of the camera he doesn?t cry at all. The other one is a homebody. He is always so well-behaved at home, but would just wail in front of the camera. Hirap kami sa kanya whenever we have pictorials.

Was breastfeeding tough on you?

No one told me that it would be this hard. It was so painful the first time. Namimilipit ang toes ko.

How is King? Parenting books say husbands sometimes feel neglected when the wife is fully focused on the babies.

I heard the same from my uncles: ??Wag mong kakalimutan ang asawa mo.? So I always check on him, ask him how he is. King is home more often now, checking on the babies whenever he can. I never saw this side of him before. He was restless, always on the go.

How did you prepare for the babies?

I bought a bunch of books on pregnancy and babies. Reading them became my passion. I also sought advice from my mom and sister.

My husband bought a lot of photography equipment. That became his new hobby. He said he wanted to capture every milestone in our babies? lives. Yesterday alone, he took 360 pictures of the kids. Isang araw lang ?yun. He?s so OA.

Kinarir ko ang room nila. I wanted a special kind of wallpaper but it wasn?t available locally. So I called UP Fine Arts for students who could work with me on it. I also had them paint clouds on the ceiling.

Email mcruz@inquirer.com.ph