Paeng cuts deadly path; Bangsamoro worst hit

HEAVY DAMAGE DOWN SOUTH A landslide triggered by heavy rains in Parang town, Maguindanao, on Friday shows the almost nationwide extent of the damage wrought by Tropical Storm “Paeng,” (international name: Nalgae) whose fury may yet be fully felt this weekend in other parts of the country. Photo provided by the Philippine Marines. —AFP

Tropical Storm Paeng (international name: Nalgae) drenched most parts of the country on Friday and among the worst-hit by heavy rains was the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) where dozens of people died in floods and landslides.

The French news agency, Agence France-Presse, (AFP) quoted an official civil defense report saying that 67 had died by late Friday, more than the 42 earlier reported by officials.

In Capiz province, the provincial Office of Civil Defense (OCD) reported that a man drowned in the swollen Panay River in the town of Tapaz.

BARMM Interior Minister Naguib Sinarimbo told reporters in Manila by phone that the number of dead and missing could rise after one indigenous community with “hundreds” of residents was badly hit in Barangay Kusiong, Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

Caught by surprise

“A relative of one of the residents there went to our operations center and reported that their community was washed out because of the flash floods and landslide coming from the mountain,” he said.

“The report that we received is that there were dead people, and there were also residents who were trapped in the rubble that need to be rescued,” he added.

In some areas, the floods and landslides caught many families by surprise as these happened at past midnight on Friday.

No tropical cyclone wind signal was raised over both Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, the two new provinces created after Maguindanao was split this year.

The government weather bureau warned as early as Thursday that “moderate to heavy, with at times intense rains [were] likely” to occur in the BARMM.

Sinarimbo said the BARMM raised the red alert, the highest for a weather disturbance, throughout the region, activating its emergency operations center and rescue teams.

“But unfortunately, this is not the amount of rainfall that normally people expect. The whole (Thursday) night it was raining hard. There is still rain today, though not as strong as last night, so the volume of water was very big,” he said.

Sinarimbo said landslides and flash floods occurred in seven out of Maguindanao del Norte’s 13 towns—Datu Odin Sinsuat, Datu Blah Sinsuat, Northern Kabuntalan, Parang, Sultan Kudarat, Sultan Mastura, Upi—as well as Cotabato City.

He said at least 16 of the fatalities were from Datu Odin Sinsuat, capital of Maguindanao del Norte, 10 from Datu Blah Sinsuat, and five from North Upi.

Those who died in Datu Odin Sinsuat were residents of a community near Mt. Minandar in Kusiong, where many were buried by a landslide while others were swept away by strong flood currents.

Five people in the village were still missing as of 4 p.m. on Friday, and search continued into the late afternoon, Sinarimbo said.

Datu Blah Sinsuat Mayor Marshal Sinsuat said one councilman of Barangay Nalkan was among those who died in his town. He said rampaging waters severely damaged crops and houses especially in the villages of Pura, Nalkan and Tubuan. About 10,000 residents of North Upi town were forced to move to higher ground as floods inundated low-lying villages.

In Cotabato City, Mayor Bruce Matabalao said the city was placed under a state of calamity as 25 of its 37 villages had been submerged, affecting about 67,000 people.

“The flood was so high, and it was the first time that floodwaters had entered our house in the decades that we have been living here in Cotabato,” Sinarimbo said.Many roads also were flooded, cutting transportation between Cotabato City and Midsayap town in Cotabato province and also the highway to Davao City.

The raging water that overflowed from the Baguer River destroyed a steel bridge connecting Datu Blah Sinsuat to Datu Odin Sinsuat.

Authorities cut off electricity to Cotabato City and to Maguindanao and Cotabato provinces as a safety measure.

In Zamboanga City, more than 700 families from 22 villages were displaced from their homes due to floods, according to Dr. Elmeir Apolinario, the city disaster risk reduction and management officer.

As high as rooftops

Flooding also was reported in the provinces of Capiz, Antique, Iloilo, Aklan and Negros Occidental, affecting more than 75,000 people.

In Capiz alone, floods that swept through nine towns in the province affected 17,542 families composed of 52,138 individuals, according to OCD.

According to Cindy Ferrer, information officer for OCD-Western Visayas, the floodwaters were waist-deep to as high as the rooftops of single-story homes.In Passi City, Iloilo province, 869 families, or 2,986 individuals, were affected by the floods.

In Negros Occidental, floods affected at least 17,011 people in the towns of Calatrava, Valladolid, Moises Padilla and Hinoba-an and the cities of San Carlos, Bago and Kabankalan.

After rains intensified on Friday, Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson placed the province under red alert with local officials allowed to conduct mandatory evacuation if necessary.

The regional OCD office also reported that three bridges and 23 roads were “not passable,” including two roads in Aklan and 17 in Capiz.

Floods and landslides also hit the Bicol region, displacing more than 1,400 families, or 6,000 individuals, according to local authorities.

At least 534 families, or 2,075 people, in four Camarines Norte towns and 278 families, or 1,073 people, in 11 towns in Camarines Sur sought shelter at various evacuation sites.

Gremil Alexis Naz, spokesperson for OCD-Bicol, said 31 towns were flooded while 20 roads, bridges, and spillways were impassable in Camarines Sur.

Naz said landslides were reported in San Jose town and Rolando Andaya Highway in Lupi town.

In Albay province, more than 600 families, around 3,000 people, living near the slopes of Mt. Mayon, were evacuated on Friday.

“We want them to be safe and, of course, our priority is to attain zero casualties. That is why we conducted the preemptive evacuation for more than 3,000 individuals,” said Mayor Paul Chino Garcia of Guinobatan, one of the towns around the volcano.

—REPORTS FROM EDWIN O. FERNANDEZ, DEXTER CABALZA, MA. APRIL MIER-MANJARES, MICHAEL B. JAUCIAN, REY ANTHONY OSTRIA, DELFIN T. MALLARI AND JUN A. MALIG, JULIE S. ALIPALA, JEOFFREY MAITEM, BONG SARMIENTO, CARLA P. GOMEZ, CONNIE FERNANDEZ-BROJAN JOEY MARZAN AND AFP

READ: Paeng now a Severe Tropical Storm; Signal No. 3 up in several Bicol towns