Floods displace 45,000 Maguindanao villagers

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Floodwaters caused by continuous rains since Sunday submerged 18 towns in the province overnight and displaced at least 45,594 residents.

Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said more than P50 million worth of rice and corn ready for harvesting were damaged.

They expressed alarm that the number of evacuees could increase in the next 24 hours.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman yesterday led the distribution of relief supplies to the flooded towns of Sultan Kudarat and Kabuntalan, both in the first district of Maguindanao.

Hataman asked the ARMM police and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division to help monitor the water level in rivers that cut through Maguindanao, and to help evacuate people in riverside villages.

Maguindanao serves as the catch basin of water flowing from the Liguasan Marsh, the Rio Grande de Mindanao from the north, and the Allah River from the hinterlands of South Cotabato.

Hataman tasked ARMM Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman, the regions’ social welfare chief, and Regional Health Secretary Kadil Sinolinding Jr., to lead the delivery of services to flooded areas, particularly in far-flung towns.