DAVAO CITY — Motorist passing the Davao-Cotabato route on Thursday witnessed the rampaging water along the highway from the Barangays of Old Bulatukan to Kisante in Makilala, North Cotabato.
This was the offshoot of the landslide in the upstream barangays of Makilala just near Mt. Apo. Motorists witnessed the boulders and rocks cascading down the Bulatukan river and its immediate environs.
North Cotabato Second Engineering district project engineer Joevil Ramirez in an interview with Newsline on Friday said, “the soil where boulders, rocks, and timbers deposited in the upland area during the 2019 earthquake gave-in, resulting to landslides somewhere near the foothills of Mt. Apo which destroyed the riprap of the old New Bulatukan bridge near the intersection of theNew Israel road”.
Ramirez said, “The Thursday flashfloods were even stronger compared to the 2016 flash floods in the same section, totally sinira yong lahat ng riprap”.
But he said motorist can still pass the national highway because they already cleared the road of debris while they are clearing the river off boulders and rocks.
As it is now, the district engineering office is conducting the debris clearing along the road and the collapsed riprap.-ezc/newsline.ph