Koronadal City—In the last 25 years, South Cotabato, through the Provincial Population Office (PPO), awarded 250 model families who have persevered to raise a loving, decent and God-centered Filipino families despite the challenges of time.
Romulo Palomo, Provincial Population Division Head, said the province created a community of outstanding families who love helping each other and foster filial bonds which are uniquely Filipino traits.
“Most of the model families of South Cotabato values education so much that they believed it could give them equal participation in all aspect of life’s challenges,” Palomo said during “Kapihan sa Kapitolyo,” a regular media meet up with the program focal persons to discuss updates and concerns of the frontline services of the Provincial Government of South Cotabato, Tuesday.
The annual Search for Most Model Family aims to recognize the deserving families in the province. Since 2010, PPO extended the search for outstanding Indigenous Family. However, the town of Sto. Nino fails to submit their entry in the last years because of the absence of IPs in their area.
Filipino family values like hard work, unity, dedication to family and perseverance are common in all model families in South Cotabato.
“Strong spirituality is a leading Filipino trait they shared. They wanted their kids to have a healthy spiritual journey for they believed Divine intervention has something to do with being successful,” Palomo shared.
The Search for the Model Family gives importance to the quality of the relationship between and among members of the family, quality of the person, ability to manage their resources, involvement in the community development activities (involvement in civic and religious organizations) and the quality of condition at home.
According to the ordinance, one of the basic qualifications of the nominees is the parents of the concerned family are legally married. If the children have their own families, the couple must also be legally married, Palomo said.
The outstanding family will receive P20, 000. First and second runner ups will have P15, 000 and P10, 000 respectively. Non-winning model families will receive P5, 000.
The evaluators are set to assess starting this August and will end in October.