OWWA-ARMM honors MOYFA winners
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 20:01 PM Sat Oct 18, 2014
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By:
Edwin Fernandez
(Photo courtesyand OWWA-ARMM FB account)
COTABATO CITY
– The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (OWWA-ARMM) Thursday honoured the region’s Model Overseas Filipino
Worker Family of the Year (MOFYA).
Habib Malik,
OWWA-ARMM regional supervisor, identified this year’s awardees as Engr. Elias
Ote from Marawi City who won the MOFYA-land based category and Umal Lamalan, a
seaman for sea-based category.
The two will
represent the region in the national search.
Malik said the
citation was a simple but noble way of recognizing OFW Family for braving
loneliness, distance from loved ones and success amid difficult situation.
The awardees
were nominated by OFW Family Circles, OFW communities, church groups, civil
organizations and non-government organizations in the region.
Engr. Ote will
be competing against 16 other regional MOFYA awardees in the country while
Lamalan will face the same number of regional winners for this year’s national
awards on December 4 in Manila.
Judges in the national contestwill
also confer three special awards, namely, the Outstanding OFW Family in
Entrepreneurship, Outstanding OFW Family in Community Projects, and the OFW
Family Circle of the Year.
MOFYA is an
annual institutional event of OWWA that highlights the solidarity of the OFW
family as one of the pillars of a stable Filipino society.
One of the
criteria is family values upheld and nurtured by the OFWs that resonate with
the community.
Judges will
also consider the educational values espoused by the OFW family, as well as
their achievements in managing financial resources while the OFW family member
was abroad.
Last year’s
national winners were Esmael M. Maulana and Family of Pidsandawa, Rayah Buayan,
Maguindanao for the landbased category and Alberto Balbalan and Family of
Barangay Lucaban, Burgos, Ilocos Sur for the seabased category.