SANTO Tomas Mayor John Sambo met with some 200 solo parents at the San Vicente Event Center in Barangay San Vicente for the Solo Parents General Assembly recently.

Sambo said that his administration has been looking after the welfare of solo parents and their dependents through assistance and cash-for-work programs.

He added that the municipal government is looking at empowering solo parents so that they will not be left out in the community and government programs.

“We are also looking at the possibility of establishing a cooperative for them,” Sambo said. He added that the cooperative, with the aid of the municipal government, will be able to assist its members through long term programs and support systems.

“The good thing about a cooperative is that it will not be short term,” Sambo added.

Solo parents are defined as individuals with the responsibility of parenthood due to the following circumstances: death of spouse, spouse is detained or is serving sentence; physical or mental incapacity of spouse, legal separation or de facto separation; declaration of nullity or annulment of marriage.

Sambo aims to further localize the implementation of the Solo Parents Welfare Act of 2000 which provides the different program services for solo parents and their children carried by different line agencies.

The country’s “decade old data” shows that there were “almost 14 million single parent out of 94 million of Filipinos as of 2007 with a 30.5 percent growth rate.”