More areas report flooding

The heavy rainfall in Mindanao has also caused flooding in lowlying villages in Maguindanao, Sarangani and Davao del Norte.

Water has receded as of yesterday, local disaster officials said.

No one fled their homes in Datu Montawal town in Maguindanao because the residents are used to flooding. The town is situated beside the Pulangi River and the Liguasan marshland.

The most affected village was Talapas, where about 60 percent of the town proper was under water for two days, according to Datu Montawal town Vice Mayor Otto Montawal.

In Alabel town in Sarangani, at least 94 families in two riverside communities were temporarily displaced after a major river swelled on Thursday night following hours of heavy rains.

Ariston Lim, operations head of the Alabel Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said that the Buayan River over-

Churchmen are not perfect... The fault of some should not be blamed on all. LIPA ARCHBISHOP RAMON ARGUELLES in response to President Duterte’s tirade against the church

flowed and floodwater inundated barangays Maribulan and Baluntay.

He said the floods affected 72 families in Purok 8 of Barangay Baluntay and 22 more in Sitio Bayan of Barangay Maribulan.

In Davao del Norte, five ma- jor rivers overflowed, affecting a total of 4,000 families or 15,000 individuals.

This prompted the provincial government to activate its Incident Command System to assist the affected towns of Braulio E. Dujali, Kapalong, New Corella, Asuncion and Carmen.

The provincial government reported that Libuganon and Saug rivers have already reached its critical level while municipalities have been advised to closely monitor as the weather disturbance is expected to last until Sunday.

Flooding in Davao del Norte started Tuesday in the municipalities of Kapalong and Braulio Dujali where more than 7,000 residents from seven barangays were initially evacuated after the Libuganon River overflowed.

Heavy rains brought by the tail-end of a cold front have caused flooding and landslides in the Visayas and Mindanao since Monday.