4 drown in North Cotabato floods

KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato – At least four persons, two of them minors, have drowned in floods that have swamped parts of North Cotabato province after days of heavy rain, officials said Saturday.

In the town of Mlang,  Municipal Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council Officer Constantino Dizaon said the bodies of brothers  Shelron Jave, 5, and Roniel Jeff Brania were found floating in a ditch Thursday morning.

Diazon said the two minors drowned when they were swept away by rampaging flood waters. They were last seen trying to cross the ditch on their way home from watching an afternoon television cartoon show at a neighbor’s house on Wednesday.

Sheila Brania, mother of the two children, said her sons regularly watched cartoons at the neighbor’s house.

“We were restive and searched for them. Now I know why they failed to come home,” she said.

In Makilala town, residents of Luna Norte found the body of another villager, identified as Wilson Abensay, 53, on the river there.

Abensay, a motorcycle driver, reportedly tried to cross the swollen river on Friday only to be engulfed by the raging water.

In the town of President Roxas, the body of another man was found floating on the Kabacan River.

President Roxas officials said the drowning victim was not a resident of the town. He was believed to have come from the nearby town of Magpet.

No casualties have been reported in the town of Kabacan, but officials warned residents living near bodies of water there to be vigilant.

At least 19,000 individuals were affected by flooding eight villages in Kabacan, according to Dan Saure, Kabacan disaster risk reduction official.

Hundreds of hectares of agricultural land in the villages of Dagupan, Cuyapon, Upper Paatan, Katidtuan, Pedtad and Lower Paatan  were submerged in knee-deep water, he said.

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