Crop damage in Maguindanao floods placed at P39 M

COTABATO CITY – Flash floods that swept through 10 municipalities in Maguindanao early this week destroyed P39 million worth of harvestable crops and displaced 3,980 villagers who are now temporarily housed in schools.

Datu Haron Bandila, assistant agriculture secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said initial estimates by his technicians, based on actual field inspections, show that 4,231 hectares of rice and corn farms in Maguindanao have been flooded as heavy rains caused the Rio Grande de Mindanao and tributaries of the Allah River to overflow.

"The affected farmers will need fertilizers and seeds as soon as their farmlands get dry. All of their crops are gone and some of them also lost their farm animals," Bandila said.

ARMM Gov. Parouk Hussin, chairman of the regional peace and order council, said he has tasked the region’s social welfare and health departments to attend to the immediate needs of villagers displaced by the flash floods, mostly Maguindanaoans who mainly subsist on farming.

Hussin said his office would also seek Malacañang’s help in complementing the relief efforts of the regional government, which, he bewailed, has limited funds to address the needs of the flood-hit communities. – John Unson