UPDATE: 15 perish in floods, landslides in Maguindanao
Local News • 14:30 PM Fri Oct 28, 2022
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By:
John M. Unson
Flood-stricken residents of Upi town are now in makeshift evacuation sites. (From Aileen Hualde)
COTABATO CITY - No fewer than 15 people in Maguindanao del Norte perished in flash floods and landslides caused byTropical Storm Paeng.
Reports from the Bangsamoro regional government, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and local government units said the worst hit by flash floods are Maguindanao's Upi, Sultan Kudarat, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Parang and Datu Blah Sinsuat towns.
Responders from the Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence, or READi contingent of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, personnel of units under the Army's 6th ID and rescue teams from LGUs and the police have, until past 1:00 p.m. Friday, scrambling to relocate flood-stricken villagers to safe areas.
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 LGU emergency responders found dead a villager in Barangay Pura, one of six residents who went missing after flash floods swept through houses in the area.
“We are still searching for the five other missing persons,” Sinsuat said on Friday morning.
BARMM’s local government minister, Naguib Sinarimbo, who is overseeing the operation of READi, said they have also received reports of fatalities in Datu Odin Sinsuat and in towns in Maguindanao del Sur.
He said their calamity and disaster responders 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 6th 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.