MORE than 7,000 families have been displaced by flooding that hit Datu Montawal town in Maguindanao province last Tuesday, August 9. Balumol Kadiding, municipal disaster officer of Datu Montawal, on Thursday said most of the flood victims have moved to safer grounds.

“However, many of them are home-based and are just waiting for the water to recede,” Kadiding also said, adding that no casualty was reported.

All the town’s 11 barangay (villages) were flooded after the Kabacan River overflowed because of heavy downpour in Bukidnon and North Cotabato.

Montawal, a town with a population of over 37,300 per 2020 census, is beside the Kabacan River and also near the Malitubog-Maridagao water channels.

Kadiding said flooding has been a recurring problem of Datu Montawal as the town served as a catch basin of river water from upstream or from North Cotabato and Bukidnon.

The water from the river flows toward the Maguindanao marshland.

Kadiding said ongoing relief operations will cushion the impact of the calamity on affected families.

He added that the town disaster council is set to convene anytime to consider recommending the declaration of a state of calamity.

Meanwhile, the provincial government of North Cotabato conducted a series of relief operations over the weekend for flood victims in the towns of Kabacan and Pikit.

In two flood-affected villages in Pikit, 559 families in Silik village were given relief aid while 90 families in Dalingaoen village received food packages and were also visited by Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza.

Sittie Eljori Antao-Balisi, Cotabato first district board member, assured the flood victims that the provincial government will keep on extending public service to residents of the province.

Silik village chairman Benzar Mangansakan expressed his gratitude to Mendoza for the assistance given by the provincial government.

Mangansakan said the relief aid greatly helped the residents as their primary source of food is adversely affected by the flooding.

The relief campaign was spearheaded by the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office in cooperation with the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office and Pikit Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office.