COTABATO CITY, Philippines -- At least a dozen low-lying villages of this city and the adjacent Sultan Kudarat town of Maguindanao are still under water, days after typhoon Ondoy brought rains to the flood-prone areas.

The national highway in Barangay (Village) Bulalo remains impassable to motorists.

Solomon Badoy, executive director of the Mindanao River Basin Rehabilitation and Development Task Force said the P5 million left in their funds would be used to widen the heavily silted Simuay and Ambal rivers, which usually overflowed during non-stop rains. (President Macapagal-Arroyo earlier released P50 million to the MRBRD in August for its regular flood-control programs.)

Heavy siltation has narrowed the river path prompting water channels to swell, Badoy said.

Even before Ondoy unleashed rains in the area, the villages and the adjacent parts of Sultan Kudarat were already experiencing floods whenever there were rains. Hundreds of families living in frequently flooded villages have been staying in evacuation centers attended to by government and non-government workers engaged in humanitarian mission.

Badoy said the river needed to be dredged 60 meters wide to allow the faster flow of the river toward the sea.

Badoy said the widening activity was programmed for the next two weeks.

"It would be hard to contain a big volume of water flowing in a narrow channel. There's a need to widen them.

The MRBRD flood-control project has been assured of a P6-billion funding from the Office of the President.

The money is directly released to the Department of Public Works and Highways, the agency that takes care of the project expenditures, while the MRBRD Task Force, chaired by Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, has been tasked to monitor, recommend and report all project-related activities to Malacañang.