COTABATO CITY (September 25) — Since Monday, September 22, the Bangsamoro administration has been providing humanitarian assistance to around 97,000 residents from flooded districts in its Special Geographic Area and two provinces near the now-flooded 220,000-hectare Ligawasan Delta.
Following last week’s heavy rains in Central Mindanao, the Ligawasan Delta, a catch basin for more than a dozen rivers originating from mountain ranges in Bukidnon, Cotabato, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, South Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat provinces, overflowed, inundating 29 towns.
According to reports obtained on Wednesday, September 24, from the office of Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and their disaster response team, the BARMM Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence (READi), at least 29 Bangsamoro towns in Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte provinces, and the Special Geographic Area have been flooded since last weekend.
The Bangsamoro Parliament established BARMM’s Special Geographic Area last year through separate enabling acts, which covers 63 mostly Moro barangays divided into eight towns. It is located in Cotabato province’s Administrative Region 12.
BARMM-READi emergency responders, counterparts in local government units in the flooded municipalities, and personnel from the provincial disaster management offices in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur relocated 46,223 flood-stricken villagers to safe areas in rescue operations that began on Sunday, September 21.
Macacua stated on Wednesday that he has authorized BARMM-READi personnel to expand their emergency response efforts to other swampy areas in Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte, which are crisscrossed by rivers that connect to the Ligawasan Delta.
Municipal and provincial authorities informed reporters on Wednesday that BARMM agencies had handed at least 26 tons of food supplies to people who had been evacuated to improvised relief centers and multi-purpose covered courts high above their flooded barangays.
Macacua and Mohammad Farzieh Abutazil, director of the BARMM-READi, are in charge of the Bangsamoro government’s emergency response efforts in flooded districts within the autonomous region’s core territory.
