COTABATO CITY, Philippines --- Fire probers are still investigating the cause of fire that razed 272 houses in a seaside village in Bongao town in Tawi-Tawi just before Christmas.
Inspector James Ra, provincial fire marshal of Tawi-Tawi, said the residents dislocated by the fire that destroyed the houses in neighboring barangays Sheik Makdum and Tandu Banak in Bongao, are now staying in makeshit relief sites and houses of relatives in nearby areas.
The island town of Bongao is the capital of Tawi-Tawi, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Ra said the office of Tawi-Tawi Gov. Nurbert Sahali and the congressional representative of the province, Ruby Sahali, are helping the displaced villagers.
Investigators initially estimate that properties destroyed by the fire cost P19 million.