Climate Change/Environment

PAGADIAN CITY - Two warehouse workers perished while another was badly injured in a landslide in Barangay Balintawak here at past 4:00 p.m. Monday.

Richard Fabria, chief of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, identified fatalities as George Masayon ang Julien Apamen, whose cadavers are now in a local mortuary.

KIDAPAWAN CITY - The flash floods that swept through agricultural enclaves in President Roxas town in Cotabato last week destroyed no less than P35 million worth of infrastructure and crops, officials announced Monday.

Two women drowned in rampaging floodwaters that displaced 1, 494 families according to the local police and officials of the President Roxas local government unit.

KIDAPAWAN CITY - The local government of Antipas in North Cotabato was in the thick of preparations using various measures to cushion the impact of El Nino phenomenon that, according to the state weather bureau, will commence this July and would probably persists until 2024.

Antipas Mayor Christobal Cadungon said all of the town’s 29 villages have already submitted their contingency plans in order to cushion the effect of dry spell, focusing on ensuring ample water supply in every village.

KABACAN, North Cotabato – Two have died due to drowning in North Cotabato while about 80,000 individuals have been displaced by floods in two Maguidnanao towns on Thursday, disaster officials said.

All the 11 villages of Pagalungan, Maguindanao del Sur have been underwater while most part of Datu Montawal were also flooded.

Two persons, a farmer and a 14-year-old boy, were separately killed in Magpet and Matalam, respectively, when they tried, but failed to cross rivers with swollen flood water.  They remains were fished out downstream.

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Heavy down pour in Arakan, North Cotabato early this week have triggered flashfloods and landslides that washed away at least 10 houses, the town spokesperson said Wednesday.

Leonardo Reovoca, Arakan information officer, said the Kulaman Valley River have overflowed and swept away houses along the riverbanks, a multi-cab vehicle, a motorbike and a horse.

Several landslides shut down portions of the Cotabato-Bukidnon highway.  Reovoca said landslides occurred in the villages of Kabalantian, Meocan, Anapolon, Malibatuan and Sabang.

MANILA – The Marcos administration has reconstituted the task force that will respond to the looming El Niño, Malacañang announced on Saturday.

The reconstituted task force will be led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) with other member agencies, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cheloy Garafil said in a statement, citing Department of National Defense chief Carlito Galvez Jr.'s three-page report submitted to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

MANILA – The Marcos administration has reconstituted the task force that will respond to the looming El Niño, Malacañang announced on Saturday.

The reconstituted task force will be led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) with other member agencies, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cheloy Garafil said in a statement, citing Department of National Defense chief Carlito Galvez Jr.'s three-page report submitted to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

COTABATO CITY - The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has urged Malacañang and the Bangsamoro government to start exploring the natural gas deposits in the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta, touted as Asia’s largest.

Studies done by experts from abroad and the national government showed that the bulk of the natural gas deposits in the Liguasan Delta are underneath swamps along towns in Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte that are inside what is now the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, most known by its acronym BARMM.

KORONADAL CITY - A Catholic bishop has challenged South Cotabato’s chief executive to defend the province’s ban on open-pit mining after an appeals court ruled that its application is limited only to small-scale operations.

In a recent letter to Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Bishop Cerilo Casicas of Marbel urged the official “to exert his best effort to defend the rights of the people to a balanced and healthy ecology”.

“It is of vital importance that the true meaning and heart of the ordinance is not in any way compromised or defeated,” Casicas said.

MAKILALA, North Cotabato – A farmer in a small village here now has two juvenile female Eastern Grass Owl (Tyto longimembris) nesting on the cluster of Arrowhead Plant or Syngonium podophyllum in a his titled farm lot in the town of Makilala.

Afredo Bas, farmer in Barangay Luna Norte in Makilala, North Cotabato, sought the assistance of the village officials and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the handling of owl species found his farm lot on Monday (March 20).