Cotabato's provincial 'Balik Ngiti Program' on

KIDAPAWAN CITY— The provincial government of Cotabato has been giving out pairs of dentures for two weeks now to marginalized elderly constituents to make them feel important, something first in Central Mindanao.

The project, dubbed "Balik Ngiti Program", first hit the news on Saturday owing to its being peculiar and something new to residents of Cotabato province.

Radio reports here on Sunday, September 8, stated that the office of Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza distributed just last Thursday 20 more sets of dentures, costing P15,000 each, to more than 20 elderly villagers in Pikit town in the province.

The distribution of the dentures to Muslim and Christian "senior citizens" was facilitated by provincial government employees led by the dentist Divinagracia Alimbuyao, oral health program coordinator of Mendoza's office.

They had earlier provided dentures to a number of elderly residents in Banisilan, an upland town, where residents rely mainly on farming as means of livelihood.

Mendoza, who is also presiding chairperson of the multi-sector and inter-agency Regional Peace and Order Council, was quoted in Sunday’s radio reports here and in nearby Central Mindanao cities as saying that they are to soon expand the program to 15 other municipalities under her jurisdiction.

She said elderly residents of Kidapawan City, the provincial capital, stand to benefit from the project too.