Organic farming family wins Provincial Huwarang Pantawid Pamilya search

The Elardo Family of Barangay Taytay, Badian town is this year’s provincial winner for the Huwarang Pantawid Pamilya search. / Photo from DSWD-7

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Elardo family of Barangay Taytay in Badian town, located 104 kilometers southwest of Cebu, believes that farming, despite technological innovation, remains the backbone of the nation.

Despite the meager income that he earns from farming, Francisco Elarde, 46, said he continues to till the soil to provide for his family and serve his community at the same time.

Francisco, his wife, Marilou, 42, and children Reese, 19, and Christian, 15, help grow organic vegetables on a 1,000 square meter farmland that they own.

“If everyone becomes an engineer or a seafarer, who would produce the food that we put on the table? We can’t cook steel bars, can we?” Elarde jokingly said in Cebuano.

The Elardos were among the 160,000 families enlisted in the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in Cebu province.

The Elardos earn from organic farming/ Photo from DSWD-7

This year, the Elardos bested all the beneficiaries in Cebu province after they were hailed first place winner in the Provincial Huwarang Pantawid Pamilya 2019 search. They received a cash prize of P7,000 during the awarding ceremony held in a Cebu City hotel this morning, June 18.

The Elardos will represent Cebu province in the Huwarang Pantawid Pamilya regional search scheduled on July 5.

Brigieda Goron, the provincial link for the DSWD 4Ps, said they considered how the family utilized their share of the 4Ps subsidy to send their children to school. Other considerations are healthy living, family development, and community involvement.

“Ang tanan nato nga inputs sa family development sessions atong gilantaw kung giunsa nila pag-apply. Apil ang commuity involvement kay diha man nato makita how they become of help sa ilang mga community,” Goron said.

(We consider all inputs from the family assessment sessions. We also look at their community involvement to determine how they were able to help their neighbors.)

“Ang winning piece gyud ani nila karon is their advocacies. Kining mga nakadaog karon, they advocate for organic farming which is gipabug-atan pod sa ilang locality sa Badian,” she added.

(Their winning piece are their advocacies. The winners in this year’s search advocated for organic farming which is being pushed by the Local Government Unit of Badian.)

Other winners in this year’s search included the Vaflor family of Cordova town.  The second place winner received P5,000 cash. The Ejes Family of Bantayan town in Bantayan Island also won third place and brought home P4,000 cash. /dcb