More Central Mindanao towns flooded due to heavy rains

COTABATO CITY — Floodwaters spawned by heavy rains swept through 18 more towns in three Central Mindanao provinces on Saturday, destroying bridges, 23 houses and causing the displacement of around 40,000 residents.

Many of the flooded towns in the adjoining Maguindanao del Sur and Cotabato provinces are close to swamps and rivers that connect to the 220,000-hectare Ligawasan Delta, a "catch basin" for more than a dozen large waterways that spring from mountain ranges around.

The Ligawasan Delta swells fast during rainy days, causing inundation of villages in towns nearby.

Rampaging floods destroyed two bridges in the Tambis and Kidayan stretches of the Kalamansig-Palimbang Highway that straddles through the seaside Kalamansig and Palimbang towns in Sultan Kudarat province in Region 12.

The office of Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza has deployed emergency responders to the flooded barangays in Kabacan and Pikit towns to help local government units address the needs of thousands of affected villagers.

Kabacan and Pikit are both known as gateways to the Ligawasan Delta where water deposits flow downstream via large rivers that drain at the western seacoast of Cotabato City.

The Office of Civil Defense-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Ministry of Social Services and Development-BARMM are cooperating in reaching out to residents of flood-stricken areas in Montawal and Pagalungan towns in Maguindanao del Sur and in some of the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in different towns in Cotabato.

The MSSD-BARMM’s minister, Raissa Jadjurie, and teams of emergency responders under her office had distributed 12 tons of relief supplies to more than 10,000 villagers in Matanog in Maguindanao del Norte and in nearby Kapatagan, Balabagan and Malabang in Lanao del Sur that got flooded late Tuesday following heavy downpours several hours before.

The floods that swept through Matanog, Kapatagan, Balabagan and Malabang on Tuesday night destroyed more than 400 houses made of semi-permanent materials and ravaged 4,000 hectares of farmlands.