Floods hit 50 barangays near Liguasan Delta

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines -- More than 50 barangays near the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta have been flooded since late Wednesday following three days of heavy downpour in nearby provinces.

The Liguasan Delta in central Mindanao is a catch basin for more than a dozen large rivers that spring from the provinces of Bukidnon, Maguindanao, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

Hundreds of peasant families in two neighboring Maguindanao towns close to the delta, Pagalungan and Montawal, evacuated to houses of relatives far from the river and swamps that started to overflow Wednesday.

Local officials in Montawal reported Friday morning that four barangays in their municipality are now submerged in waist-deep floods after the Pulangi River swelled, inundating more that 10,000-hectares of farms.

Flash floods also swept through dozens of villages in Valencia City in Bukidnon province in Northern Mindanao.

Inspector Nolie Sudaria, chief of the Montawal municipal police, confirmed to reporters the evacuation of hundreds of families from the flooded barangays.

He said Barangay Talapas in the outskirts of Montawal, where the level of murky floodwaters reached more than four feet from the ground by noontime Thursday, was hit worst.

Officials of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade based in nearby Carmen town in North Cotabato said rampaging floods also hit Montawal’s Barangays Talitay, Bulod, Limbalod and Nabundas.
 
The local government of Montawal has been providing relief services to flood victims since late Wednesday.

Maguindanao’s provincial emergency group and medical team is now packing relief supplies for distribution to flood victims in Pagalungan and Montawal.

Maguindanao province is a component area of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which also covers Lanao del Sur, where 10 towns have also been ravaged by flash floods.

Montawal Vice Mayor Otho Montawal said their LGU needs help from the provincial government of Maguindanao and the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team of ARMM.

“About 60 percent of the lands within the area of our municipality is now flooded,” Montawal told reporters.

Low-lying areas in Pikit town in North Cotabato, which is under Administrative Region 12, were also hit by flash floods, local officials said.

Pikit is also dotted with swamps that connect to the Liguasan Delta, made shallow by silt that accumulated over time, flushed down by floodwaters from denuded mountain ranges in nearby provinces.