Calamity state declared in South Cotabato town

KORONADAL CITY—A state of calamity has been declared in Tupi town, South Cotabato province, following flash floods and a waterspout that destroyed communities there some two weeks ago.

Mayor Reynaldo Tamayo said the state of calamity was declared by the municipal council on Monday.

It allows him to use part of the town’s calamity fund to help residents who have been displaced or lost crops and property during the disaster.

Tamayo said the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council was continuing to inventory the damage caused by the flooding and waterspout. Initial estimates, according to the mayor, place the damage at P800,000.

“With the additional funds from our calamity coffers, we will be able to help our constituents devastated by natural calamities,” he said in an interview aired by radio station dxOM.

In Maguindanao province, floods that hit low-lying communities there have already brought hardship to at least 80,000 individuals, according to a report by the Office of Civil Defense in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The office said at least 83 villages had been inundated, although no evacuations were reported.

Classes, however, remain suspended in the towns of Mamasapano, Datu Salibo, Shariff Saydona, Datu Piang, Sultan sa Barongis, Rajah Buayan, Datu Abdullah Sangki, Mother Kabuntalan, Northern Kabuntalan, Ampatuan, Datu Montawal, Pagalungan and Datu Odin Sinsuat.

“We are continuing to serve the affected families,” lawyer Laisa Alamia, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao executive secretary, said on Thursday.

In a separate statement, engineer Emil Sadain, ARMM public works secretary, said that on July 1, another meeting on the recurring floods would be held in Cotabato City.

He said the meeting would be attended by members of the Presidential Task Force on Mindanao River Basin Rehabilitation and Development Program, headed by Cotabato Cardinal Orlando Quevedo.

The task force was organized in 2009.

Sadain said officials in the meeting would expect an update on the status of the P5-billion allocation for the different flood control projects that are based on a master plan prepared by the task force. Williamor Magbanua, Edwin Fernandez and Charlie Senase, Inquirer Mindanao