UPDATE: 31 people perish in Maguindanao floods, landslides, BARMM exec says  

COTABATO CITY - Authorities placed at 31 the initial tally of people in two Maguindanao provinces who perished in landslides and flashfloods caused by Tropical Storm Paeng.

The Bangsamoro Information Office and the region’s local government minister, Naguib Sinarimbo, separately confirmed the number of fatalities in the landslides and flashfloods that hit parts of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces.

The fatality count was premised on reports from local government units, the police and the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division that are helping the Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao carry out rescue and relief missions in calamity-stricken areas in both provinces.

Sinarimbo, who is overseeing the regional government’s READi contingent, said Friday afternoon their calamity and disaster responders are still out in the field, along with policemen and soldiers, relocating flood-stricken villagers to safe areas.

Reports reaching the READi operations center at the BARMM capitol in Cotabato City stated that of the 31 fatalities, 16 are from Datu Odin Sinsuat, 10 are from Datu Blah Sinsuat and five are residents of Upi, all in Maguindanao del Norte.

Mayor Marshall Sinsuat of Datu Blah Sinsuat said four villagers got drowned in waist-deep floodwaters that swept through Barangay Tubuan in their municipality.

A barangay councilor also died in the nearby seaside Barangay Nalkan in Datu Blah Sinsuat, ravaged by rampaging floodwaters from hinterlands.

Sinsuat said six residents of Barangay Pura also died as flashflood hit houses in the area.

Sinarimbo said READi rescuers have been mobilized to areas where they are needed. 

Ambulances and rescue trucks of READi had also been deployed in flood-stricken towns.

Two minors in Tanuel and a retired teacher in Kurintem, both in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, also reportedly drowned in floodwaters, according to local officials.

Soldiers from units of 6^th ID and LGU rescuers have also dug a cadaver from one of several houses covered with mud and rocks that cascaded from a hill in Barangay Kusiong in Datu Odin Sinsuat.

Relatives identified the fatality as Johnny Balatucan Sapi, an ethnic Teduray.

More than 10,000 residents of Upi, a hinterland town in Maguindanao del Norte, were forced to relocate to higher grounds as floods inundated villages in its town proper.

Many of the displaced Upi residents are now in a public gymnasium adjacent to the municipal government center in the town proper of the municipality.