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Considering its implementation, the linguistic and cultural diversity of Mindanao, however, brings much complexity to the issue of language policy in education. With Mindanao’s more than 26 provinces and over 25 million population (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2005), the government offers a challenging environment for implementing a language policy that is suppose to serve all Mindanao regions and the rest of the country. This language policy is part of a rising trend around the world to support mother tongue instruction in the early years of a child‘s education. In Southeast Asia, this is apparent in a growing number of educational programs that use the mother tongue approach. Good examples can be found in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Timor L ‘Este and Vietnam (UNESCO, 2007). With all this, the program is now on its third year as it was implemented in 2011. Looking at this, the shift towards mother tongue-based multilingual education is not a walk in a highway. Numerous challenges need to be addressed like the production of materials, training of teachers, management of resources, and perhaps, the socio-cultural support to enhance this project. Concentrating on the MTB-MLE program challenges, this study is hoping to underwrite something of relevant contribution to the success of the MTB-MLE in Iligan City.