We study the question for which Tychonoff spaces X and locally convex spaces E the space Cp(X, E) of continuous E-valued functions on X contains a complemented copy of the space (c0)p = {x ∈ R ω : x(n) → 0}, both endowed with the pointwise topology. We provide a positive answer for a vast class of spaces, extending classical theorems of Cembranos, Freniche, and Domański and Drewnowski, proved for the case of Banach and Fréchet spaces C k (X, E). For given infinite Tychonoff spaces X and Y , using the results of Henriksen and Woods and analysing relations between the space Cp(X, Cp(Y )) and the space SCp(X × Y ) of separately continuous real-valued functions on the product X × Y , we show that Cp(X, Cp(Y )) contains a complemented copy of (c0)p if and only if any of the spaces Cp(X) and Cp(Y ) contains such a subspace. This approach applies also to show that, contrary to the case of the compact-open topology, for every infinite compact spaces X and Y the space Cp(X × Y ) cannot be mapped onto the space Cp(X, Cp(Y )) by a continuous linear operator.