Flood-hit Maguindanao town in calamity state

DATU MONTAWAL, MAGUINDANAO—The municipal council placed this town under a state of calamity this week due to massive flooding in its 11 villages, affecting some 5,200 families.

Balumol Kadiding, municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer, said the calamity declaration frees up the local government’s quick response fund to help farmers recover from crop losses and repair damaged houses.

As of Thursday, at least four of the town’s 11 villages were still submerged in neck-deep floodwaters while already knee-deep in other areas, slowing efforts to distribute emergency food packs.

Aid delivery

Banca (motorized boats) are used to deliver relief goods in communities where floodwaters are high.

Frequent rains in nearby Bukidnon and Cotabato provinces during the past days led to a swelling of the Pulangi River on Sunday.

Kadiding said 70 percent of the town’s rice fields, scheduled for harvesting in August, were destroyed, with 150 farmers affected by the floods.

He said the local government would give rice and corn seeds to farmers as well as support the needs of families whose breadwinners could not yet go to work.

In Datu Salibo town, officials said water started to recede on Tuesday, leaving thick mud in the flooded areas, including in the town police’s office.

The Maguindanao provincial disaster response office also reported that floods submerged low-lying areas in the towns of Northern Kabuntalan, Sultan sa Barongis, Datu Piang, Mamasapano, Rajah Buayan, Guindulungan, Talayan, Talitay and Datu Odin Sinsuat. —REPORTS FROM EDWIN O. FERNANDEZ AND WILLIAMOR A. MAGBANUA