Flash floods stall school opening in 2 provinces

COTABATO CITY ,Philippines  – Flash floods prevented more than 10,000 children from reporting to their schools in low-lying areas in North Cotabato and Maguindanao yesterday, authorities said.

Teachers were forced to close many schools near marshes in the two provinces after rivers overflowed due to heavy rains in the past three days.

Authorities said five people drowned and two others were reported missing in the two provinces.

Officials in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao said some 2,000 grade school and high school students in their town were stranded and were eventually told to return home as their campuses were flooded.

Education officials in Maguindanao said thousands of elementary pupils were prevented from reporting to schools along the banks of the Rio Grande de Mindanao and the Allah River due to the continued swelling of the two waterways, which drain into low-lying areas in several barangays here.

“Soldiers and policemen were utilized to help these children return to their homes and direct the traffic in flooded portions of the highways traversing Sultan Kudarat,” said the town’s mayor, Datu Tucao Mastura.

More than a dozen school campuses in Pagalungan and Pikit towns in North Cotabato were also flooded, the military said.

Lt. Col. Benjamin Hao, commanding officer of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion, said 39 barangays in the towns of Datu Montawal and Pagalungan, both in Maguindanao, and Pikit, Kabacan and Carmen towns, all in North Cotabato, were also hit by flash floods.

Hao said members of the 7th IB and local officials managed to immediately evacuate affected villagers to higher areas.