COTABATO CITY—A series of bad weather conditions affecting many Mindanao areas had spawned floods that displaced nearly 400,000 people, more than half of them in Maguindanao since last week, said a report by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Saturday.
At least 185 villages in 20 of Maguindanao province’s 36 towns remained flooded since July 21, according to a separate report from the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RDRRMC-ARMM). Maguindanao is 7,142 square kilometers in size.
The RDRRMC-ARMM said Maguindanao’s Sultan Kudarat town, which has a population of about 122,000 people, was heavily affected by floods, which were up to waist-deep in some inner villages. As of Saturday, 41,700 people from the said town alone fled to safer grounds.
The NDRRMC said that as of Saturday, it has documented 247,428 evacuees, who have sought refuge in higher grounds since July 21, when the Liguasan Marsh started discharging excess water that waterways such as the Rio Grande de Mindanao brought from as far as Bukidnon province.
The 280,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh serves as a basin for most major rivers in Mindanao. Majority of its area is under water most of the year although around 50,000 hectares dry up during summer months.
Liguasan Marsh
The floods were also being worsened by the failure of Liguasan Marsh to promptly discharge water to the sea because tributaries connecting it to the Moro Gulf are now full of water hyacinths that obstruct the free flow of water.
Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said the magnitude of the floods prompted the provincial board to place the province under a state of calamity.
This, he said, gave him the authority to disburse funds in aid of affected residents, many of whom had lost their livelihood such as corn and rice plants.
But questions cropped up as to how the province would continue to deal with the disaster as it was still reeling from previous flood problems.
Last month, the provincial government’s social welfare office and several nongovernment organizations spent P2.68 million in food aid to residents who were also displaced by floods.
Mangudadatu said what has compounded the problem this time was the recent violence between government forces and elements of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
“Residents of Guindulungan and Datu Piang have become victims of double whammy, natural and manmade, due to atrocities committed by Moro bandits,” Mangudadatu said, referring to Tuesday’s attacks by BIFF forces in the said towns.
The NDRRMC said with the floods, classes in about 115 public schools had also been suspended starting July 23.
Damage
Damage to agriculture, infrastructure and properties was still being ascertained, but the NDRRMC reported the breaching of a riprap near Tunggol Bridge in Datu Montawal town, which resulted in the flooding of hundreds of hectares of corn fields in the town and nearby Pagalungan town.
The rain also triggered flash floods and landslides in the hinterland town of Buldon but the damage was minimal, the NDRRMC said.
Manidzel Mama, a flood victim, said the disaster made life “very difficult” for them because it occurred during Ramadan.
He said they had to prepare food at dawn to start fasting and for “iftar”—breaking of the fast—in the afternoon but the floods destroyed their livelihood.
Lynette Estandarte, Maguindanao budget officer and Mangudadatu’s action officer, said to ease the burden of the fasting residents, the provincial government has formed three groups of relief teams that would aid them each day.
The fasting was expected to end on Aug. 9.
In this city, close to 100,000 persons from 26 villages had to leave their homes as floodwater continued to rise.
The excess water comes from Maguindanao and parts of North Cotabato, where 50,000 other people were also displaced, according to officials.
Cynthia Guiani Sayadi, Cotabato City administrator, said only 11 of the city’s 37 villages remained flood-free to date.
“People in not-so-seriously affected areas now move about using bancas,” she said.
Emil Sadain, ARMM’s public works secretary, said the construction of dikes and the simultaneous dredging of Rio Grande and Tamontaka River could help solve the flood problem in many Maguindanao areas and this city.
“The same solution was tried and tested in other parts of the country, especially along the Pasig River and communities around Mt. Pinatubo,” he said. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao