NCotabato employees to wear Filipiniana every Monday

NORTH COTABATO,  Philippines -- Employees of the provincial government will wear during Mondays starting this month traditional Filipino clothes to highlight their commemoration this year of the 100th founding anniversary of North Cotabato province.

North Cotabato, which covers 17 towns and its capital Kidapawan City, will celebrate its centennial anniversary on September 1, 2014.

Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza had issued a directive ordering employees of all offices and departments under her administration to wear “Filipiniana attire” during Mondays.

Led by Mendoza, employees of the provincial government’s rank-and file personnel started wearing last January 6 the traditional Filipino Baro-at- Saya, and Barong Tagalog, also known now as “Barong Filipino.”

Mendoza told reporters their dress code during Mondays will remind them of the relevance of the forthcoming 100th founding anniversary of the province.

“Our Filipino spirit always remains in our hearts and will forever manifest in us. The Centennial Celebration of Cotabato is a great opportunity for all us to show our love and respect for our nationality”, Mendoza told employees of the provincial government during a gathering early this week.

Preparations for the centennial anniversary of the province started in October 2013.

North Cotabato retained the September 1, 1914 founding anniversary of the “Empire Cotabato Province,” known then as the largest province in the Philippines, whose territory once spanned from Southern Cotabato and Dadiangas town, which now Gen. Santos City,  and from Cotabato City up to the border of Makilala town and Bansalan, Davao del Sur.

The Empire Cotabato Province was divided into what are North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Maguindanao province in 1974 through a decree by then President Ferdinand Marcos. From the territory of South Cotabato later emerged Sarangani province, also in Region 12.

North Cotabato is administratively and politically known only as “Cotabato,” but it is being referred to as "North Cotabato," to show its proximity and geographical distinction from its neighboring South Cotabato province, and Cotabato City, which is the temporary seat of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

There is a Sultan Kudarat province that was carved out of the Empire Cotabato Province, and a Sultan Kudarat municipality in Maguindanao, that was once part of Region 12, but became a component province of ARMM in 1990.