P30M agri products destroyed in Maguindanao, NCotabato floods

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  - Authorities said at least P30-million  worth of rice and corn crops have been destroyed by floods that inundated low-lying areas in the adjoining Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces following last week’s torrential rains in surrounding hinterlands.

Pombaen Karon Kader, assistant secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said in Maguindanao’s Montawal town alone, 6, 423 families have relocated to the higher areas of the Cotabato-Davao Highway.

Kaders said some 90 percent of the evacuees are dependents of farmers.

“Their farms have become seas of vast floodwaters,” Kader said.

Kader led a relief mission on Sunday in Montawal and Pagalungan town, also in Maguindanao. The relief mission was organized by the office of ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hatamam, who also serves as the chairman of the ARMM's regional disaster risk reduction and management council.

The provincial government of Maguindanao earlier dispatched a relief team to attend to the needs of the evacuees and the 

Kader said the relief suppliess consisted of rice, canned sardines, instant noodles, milk and coffee.

More than 40 villages in North Cotabato’s Kabacan, Pikit, Midsayap and Pigcawayan towns have also been inundated when the Rio Grande De Mindanao and its tributaries overflowed because of the heavy rains last week. - John Unson