Relief ops in Maguindanao as floods recede

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines -- Floodwaters in the northern border of Maguindanao and North Cotabato have receded but agencies continue helping flood victims hit by heavy crop losses.

On Tuesday, the provincial government of Maguindanao delivered 10 tons of food supplies to Pagalungan town, where more than 8,000 families were displaced by flashfloods that hit the area last week.

The Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao also transported on Tuesday more than 10 tons of individual food packs for evacuees in Montawal town in Maguindanao.

The floods ravaged more than 20,000 hectares of rice and corn farms in the two municipalities, according to local officials.

Maguindanao’s adjoining Pagalungan and Montawal towns are known gateways to central Mindanao’s oft-flooded 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.

Rivers and swamps around the delta overflowed last week following three days of heavy rains in hinterlands in Bukidnon and North Cotabato provinces.

The Liguasan Delta is a geographical catch basin for dozens of large rivers that spring from mountain ranges in the provinces of Bukidnon in Region 10, in North Cotabato, South Cotabato and in Sultan Kudarat in Region 12 and in Maguindanao in ARMM.

State of calamity in 2 towns

Municipal officials declared last week the neighboring Montawal and Pagalungan towns under a state of calamity to justify the release of funds for relief operations.

Also hit by flash floods were dozens of barangays in Pikit and Kabacan towns in North Cotabato, also both near the Liguasan Delta.

Maguindanao’s budget officer, Lynette Estandarte, chief of the provincial emergency response group, said their People’s Medical Team will be deployed on Wednesday to Montawal.

The team is comprised of physicians, nurses and social workers trained in helping victims of calamities and people displaced by conflicts.

Estandarte said they will expand their relief operations to Montawal, where thousands also got displaced by floods that swept through more than a dozen barangays there.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman led HEART’s relief operation in Montawal on Tuesday that benefited thousands of evacuees.

The relief operation in Montawal of ARMM's HEART contingent was assisted by the regional Social Welfare department.

Farmer drowns in flood

Inspector Nolie Sudaria, chief of the Montawal municipal police, said a farmer named Danilo Macaya, 56, drowned in rampaging floodwaters that spread through his farm in Barangay Tunggol in west of the municipality last Thursday.

“He was returning to his home to evacuate his family to a high ground when he was drowned. His cadaver was found next day floating in a flooded rice field,” Sudaria said.

Hataman said ARMM’s agriculture department will also help farmers recover from crop losses.

In separate statements forwarded to reporters last Saturday, Hataman and Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu separately expressed gratitude to units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division for helping rescue villagers in flooded barangays in Montawal and Pagalungan.

Mangudadatu told reporters on Tuesday that he is also thankful to the officials and enlisted personnel of the Army’s 40th and 33rd Infantry Battalions for helping them pack food supplies for flood victims.