MAGUINDANAO , Philippines – Local officials have placed the entire province and Cotabato City under a state of calamity to maximize the use of calamity funds for thousands of residents dislocated by flooding spawned by heavy rains early this week.
In Zamboanga City, meanwhile, hundreds of residents were forced to evacuate after floodwaters swept through at least three barangays starting Thursday night and wiped out newly planted rice fields, according to local officials.
Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu told reporters Thursday that he had signed the provincial board resolution declaring the state of calamity.
“This declaration will hasten our relief missions in flooded areas,†he said.
With the state of calamity, he said the provincial government can procure non-food items such as shelter materials and other supplies needed in the evacuation sites.
He said workers of the provincial government initially distributed relief supplies such as rice, instant noodles, and canned sardines to thousands of evacuees in the adjoining towns of Pagalungan, Montawal, Sultan sa Barongis, Buluan and Pandag, all in the second district of Maguindanao.
Relief workers were also fielded to distribute supplies to thousands more of evacuees in flooded towns in the first district of the province, he added.
Dozens of villages in Cotabato City have also been flooded as a result of incessant rains since last week.
Councilor Florante Formento said the city, which has 37 barangays, was also placed under a state of calamity last Tuesday.
Citing an initial count, Mangudadatu said more than 32,000 evacuees from the flooded towns were forced to relocate to higher grounds after rampaging floodwaters swept through their villages and also destroyed their harvestable palay and corn crops.
Health and social welfare officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said the floods affected 19 of Maguindanao’s 36 towns.
Maguindanao and Cotabato City are known catch basins of big rivers that spring from the hinterlands of Bukidnon, North Cotabato, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.
Mangudadatu said they are thinking of buying a modern river dredger by early 2014 to excavate the heavily silted waterways crisscrossing the province.
– With Roel Pareño