Maguindanao flood victims return home

MAGUINDANAO -- Villagers dislocated by flashfloods that swept through Sultan sa Barongis town last week have returned to their enclaves amid a flood alert still on owing to high levels of waters in rivers nearby.The Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on Tuesday said the more than 3,000 displaced families have left the makeshift evacuation sites where they stayed for nine days while their barangays were inundated.Major Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Army’s 6thInfantry Division, said military units in Sultan sa Barongis have still been monitoring on a round-the-clock basis the levels of rivers straddling through the municipality that easily overflow even in just a day of heavy rains.Pangilinan, citing feedback from Army units in different towns, said floodwaters in rivers flowing downstream west of Cotabato City to drain at the Moro Gulf remain so high, but may recede significantly in the next three days if the weather will continue to improve. Weather is improving now. We in the Army are not just for security missions. We are also in for humanitarian missions for calamity victims,” Pangilinan said Tuesday.Members of different 6thID units helped facilitate last week’s series of relief missions of the HEART and the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu for thousands of flood victims.Pangilinan also acknowledged the support of the ceasefire committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in helping ensure the safety of the workers from the HEART and Mangudadatu’s office during their operations in far-flung flooded areas.Myrna Jocelyn Henry, a senior member of ARMM’s HEART team, said they will continue to extend relief and rehabilitation services to evacuees still in relief sites in other Maguindanao towns that were hit by rain-induced flashfloods last week.