Flashfloods hit North Cotabato town; 1 dead

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A security guard drowned while around 300 hectares of rice fields were damaged due to flashfloods spawned by heavy rains in Alamada, North Cotabato on Tuesday.

Ibrahim Sumlay, 46, was sleeping in a makeshift bunkhouse along a river straddling a hydroelectric power facility he was guarding, when it was hit by rampaging floodwaters. His body was recovered in a shallow portion of the river in Barangay Polayagan in Libungan.

Forty-nine houses near the river in Barangay Raradangan and vast swaths of rice fields in nearby Matalam and Kabacan towns were also destroyed by floodwaters.

In Cagayan de Oro, around 2,000 people were displaced after more than 600 houses near creeks and riverbanks were submerged in floodwaters amid heavy rains early yesterday.