Ceasefire silenced guns but rains spawned floods in Maguindanao, North Cotabato

COTABATO CITY, July 29 — Floods spawned by a week-long moderate to heavy downpour hit Cotabato City and submerged 20 out of 37 villages, the city disaster coordinating council on Wednesday said. .

In Maguindanao and North Cotabato, more than 100 low-lying villages near the Liguasan marshland have been under water which resulted to the damages of close to P30 million worth of agricultural crops and displacement of more than 15,000 families, the city disaster coordinating council said.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have fielded operatives in the flooded areas to help evacuate affected villagers, especially in the towns of Kabuntalan, Northern Kabuntalan, Sultan Kudarat, Datu Piang, and Datu Odin Sinsuat towns in Maguindanao.

Heavy downpour the past three days also swelled two big waterways traversing Cotabato City – the Rio Grande de Mindanao and Tamontaka rivers – inundating villages at their banks that caused dislocation of some 10,000 villagers.

Sam Mundas, disaster council action man of the city government, said they have asked people residing along the banks of the two rivers to move to higher areas if the rains will continue for two more days.

North Cotabato Gov. Jesus Sacdalan, said thousands of villagers in five towns in the borders of Maguindanao and North Cotabato have been displaced by the flashfloods that struck since Friday last week.

He said the worst hit towns are Pigcawayan, Libungan, Aleosan, Pikit and parts of Midsayap.

Small cars and motorcycles could not pass through Pigcawayan and Libungan due to flash floods that overflowed portions of the Cotabato-Davao highway, he said.

As this developed, Sacdalan has asked the North Cotabato Sangguniang Panglalawigan to place the province under state of calamity so the affected families could be extended with relief and emergency assistance.

He said the provincial board is yet to act on his request.

Sacdalan, quoting reports from agriculture officials, said initial damage to crops in the province was pegged at P20 million and could even go higher if the reports are completed.

Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas, for his part, said more than 200 low laying villages surrounding Maguindanao’s Liguasan marshland have been underwater since Sunday.

Heavily inundated are the towns of North Kabuntalan, Southern Kabuntalan, Sultan Kudarat, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Talayan, Guindulungan, Datu Piang, Datu Saudi, Mamasapano, Shariff Aguak and Pagalungan.

Unas said these areas used to be conflict affected areas and after the ceasefire has been declared, the internally displaced persons (IDPs) were raring to return home only to find their villages heavily flooded.

“Many of the IDPs remained in evacuation sites in the meantime, but many or majority of them wanted to be home before the fasting month starts,” Unas said.

The month-long religious activity would start on August 22.

Regional Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan has mobilized workers of the ARMM’s health and social welfare departments to oversee the rehabilitation of the evacuees now confined in public school campuses and in houses of their relatives.

Ampatuan said he has authorized his cabinet secretaries to procure relief supplies for distribution to evacuees.

The Maguindanao and North Cotabato are “catch basins” of the Allah river that emanates from South Cotabato and the Rio Grande, which emanates from the mountains of North Cotabato and Bukidnon.

Cotabato City is the worst hit because flood waters from upstream ended up in the city’s villages before reaching the Moro gulf.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce, 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, said the soldiers are now busy attending to the needs of displaced families, not by armed conflict, but by natural calamity.

"The soldiers are up against another battle in Maguindanao,” he said.

“Now that a ceasefire is in place in our area of responsibility, the soldiers shifted their works into humanitarian aid," Ponce said, referring to army’s assistance to families displaced by flood waters..

The Rio Grande de Mindanao has overflowed following two to three days of moderate to strong down pour in Maguindanao and in south and north Cotabato. (PNA)

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