Floods ruin P160-million Cotabato crops, infrastructure

COTABATO CITY – The provincial government of North Cotabato estimated that crops and infrastructure valued at P160 million were destroyed by flash floods that ravaged parts of the province last week.

“The victims of these flash floods need immediate rehabilitation. Many of them lost their houses and all of their palay and corn crops have been washed away,” Gov. Jesus Sacdalan said.

Worst hit by the flash floods were the adjoining towns of Carmen, Kabacan, Aleosan, Pikit and President Roxas, where people relied mainly on farming and livestock-raising for livelihood.

Six villagers, two of them minors, died when rampaging floodwaters hit their villages.

“We have provided their families with assistance,” Sacdalan said.

Sacdalan said more than 600 families in the affected towns are still languishing in evacuation centers in school campuses.

“They need immediate rehabilitation,” he said.

Big rivers springing from Bukidnon and Davao del Sur and crisscrossing the affected towns swelled after heavy rains last week and inundated about 40,000 hectares of rice and corn farms in North Cotabato and Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Sacdalan said the floods destroyed infrastructure worth P40 million, including dikes that supplied water from a dam in Barangay Kibines, Carmen to low-lying areas.

The provincial agricultural office has programmed a massive dispersal of palay and corn seeds to affected farmers once the floodwaters subside.