Rough waters of Mindanao river overturn boats

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Barangay folks rescued Tuesday the operators and crewmen of three small watercraft overturned by rough waters flowing through the downstream channel here of the Rio Grande de Mindanao, swelled by heavy rains spawned by typhoon Pablo.

Sam Mundas, speaking on behalf of Cotabato City’s disaster risk reduction and management council, said no one was reported missing or drowned in the river mishaps since rescuers were quick  to respond.

Loreto Rirao, director of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said residents of villages along the banks of the Rio Grande, which straddles several towns in the first district of Maguindanao and the eastern side of Cotabato City, should continue to monitor the level of the waterway for the next five days.

“We should not be complacent because most of the rivers in the provinces of North Cotabato, Bukidnon and Sultan Kudarat flow downstream and meet together in some portions of the Rio Grande,” Rirao said.

Thousands of villagers in settlements along the Rio Grande were dislocated in 2008 and, subsequently, in 2010, when the river, which springs from Bukidnon, traversing North Cotabato and the eastern part of Maguindanao, swelled due to heavy rains.

The newly-appointed local government secretary of ARMM, lawyer Makmod Mending Jr., dispatched Wednesday a team to validate reports that two bridges in Lanao del Sur have also been destroyed by rampaging waters following heavy rains Tuesday.

The ARMM’s Typhoon Pablo emergency monitoring team, jointly led by Rirao, Mending, and  John Magno, who is chief-of-staff of Gov. Mujiv Hataman, is also verifying reports of evacuations in parts of Lanao del Sur that were hit by flashfloods last Tuesday.

Mending said ARMM’s police director, Chief Supt. Mario Avenido, has dispatched a team of policecmen to check on the reported destruction of the two bridges in Lanao del Sur.

Mending said more than 30 families in Maguindanao’s Sultan Kudarat town were reported to have evacuated to higher grounds due to the inundation of their villages.

Mending said workers of the ARMM’s public works department re-opened to traffic a vital section of a national highway linking Pikong and Kapatagan areas in the second district of Lanao del Sur, after clearing portions of the thoroughfare blocked with huge trees felled by strong winds.

Mending said they are grateful to the ARMM police and military units in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur for helping monitor flood-prone areas in the two provinces. - John Unson