Mindanao officials seek President Aquino’s help to unclog Rio Grande

COTABATO CITY—A Catholic bishop and Maguindanao officials called on President Benigno Aquino III on Sunday to help unclog the Rio Grande de Mindanao.

Aquatic plants have tangled the columns of major bridges here, the Tamontaka, Quirino, Matampay and Delta bridges, raising fears that these structures might collapse.

Maguindanao and Cotabato City have been placed under a state of calamity following weeklong floods that have displaced more than 500,000 persons in the provinces of Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, who chairs the Presidential Task Force on Mindanao River Basin, said Cotabato City is the catch basin of flood waters from rivers in Bukidnon, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao.

Riding on helicopters of the Philippine Air Force, Quevedo and Office of Civil Defense in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Executive Director Loreto Rirao, surveyed on Saturday the Liguasan marshland to view the situation on the ground.

He said huge chunks of water lilies, also known as “water hyacinth,” were moving from upstream and were expected to reach Cotabato City and the river mouth any time.

Before these huge chunks of water lilies reach the Moro Gulf, they have to pass through several bridges, inevitably endangering its foundation, according to Rirao.

“We need the immediate help of Malacañang on this,” Quevedo said.

City Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. alerted the Department of Public Works and Highways central office, but had yet to receive a response.

Government engineers were worried the water lilies could cause serious damage to the bridges if not removed promptly.

“We hope the President will find time to help us avert flooding in the city,” Guiani said.

Mayor Tocao Mastura of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, said the clogged rivers had overflowed, causing the flooding of dozens of barangays in his municipality and in the eastern side of Cotabato City.

Twenty-seven of the city’s 37 villages have been under water since Wednesday, displacing more than 20,000 residents.

Water lilies from the Liguasan Marsh were forced downstream into the rivers here and nearby towns by floodwaters spawned by heavy rains since last week.

Guiani said his immediate concern was how to remove no less than 20,000 tons of water lilies now tangling the columns of each of the three big bridges in the city.

He said city engineering workers had been trying to remove the water lilies under these bridges using backhoes, but with limited success.