Heavy rains force Central Mindanao folk to flee anew

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Residents of villages along the banks of the Rio Grande de Mindanao and tributaries of the Allah River are again evacuating to higher ground, worried that the heavy rainfall in Central Mindanao since Saturday night would cause the two waterways to overflow.

The two rivers, which traverse dozens of towns in Maguindanao and North Cotabato, swelled last month due to heavy rains, flooding riverside villages and leaving some P200 million in palay and corn crop losses.

Engineer Norie Unas, Maguindanao provincial administrator, said they have warned villagers in areas crisscrossed by the two rivers to leave their homes if the rains would continue in the next 24 hours.

Unas said many villagers in Maguindanao’s Datu Piang, Northern Kabuntalan and Kabuntalan towns have responded to the warning of the provincial disaster coordinating council and have voluntarily evacuated to elevated areas.

Last month, more than 100,000 residents in Maguindanao’s low-lying towns were displaced by flash floods, spawned by almost a week of heavy rains.

Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, chairman of the Presidential Mindanao River Basin Task Force, earlier had warned residents in North Cotabato and Maguindanao to brace for more floods if the national government would not undertake more flood control projects in the two provinces.

All rivers traversing the two adjoining provinces drain downstream of the Rio Grande and Tamontaka River, whose channels that connect to the sea in the city’s western coast are now heavily silted.

Various local non-government organizations and peace advocacy groups earlier had called on President Arroyo to give attention to the problem, which the business community lamented has already dampened Cotabato City’s investment climate.