BARMM News
By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — Scitech and Digital News
Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-ntt
COTABATO CITY (SDN) — The Bangsamoro region, as of November 1, has sustained 53 dead, 38 injured, and 12 missing in the wake of Tropical Storm Paeng.
“Paeng” affected some 570,285 individuals in the region, including in Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte (which sustained the worst impact), Sulu, and in some villages of the BARMM’s Special Geographic Area (SGA) in Midsayap and Pigcawayan Clusters. Tawi-Tawi has no report yet on how of its population were affected.
Maguindanao del Norte’s fatalities are in Barira, three; Datu Blah Sinsuat (DBS), seven; Datu Odin Sinsuat (DOS), 32; South Up, one; Upi, eight; Indanan town of Sulu, 1; and Bongao in Tawi-Tawi, one.
As this developed, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. had ordered national government agencies to extend full support to the Bangsamoro region.
The Chief Executive visited the BARMM as large swaths of the region’s mainland areas were overwhelmed by the wrath of “Paeng” (international name: Nalgae) before it even made landfall in the Philippines.
In fact, the severe weather incident landed in the country only early on Saturday, October 29, in Virac, Catanduanes, and made more landfalls before it exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR).
With torrential rain and wind gusts of 80mph, “Paeng” wrought havoc in the towns of DOS, DBS, and Upi, and Cotabato City, and other areas of the region.
Minister of the Interior and Local Government (MILG), one of the primary agencies of the Bangsamoro government, said earlier that heavy rain pounded the region starting on October 27 (that’s even before “Paeng” made its first landfall), spawning devastating landslides and floodwaters in its wake.
Marcos has been busy inspecting areas in the country impacted by the severe tropical storm, first in the province of Cavite in Luzon. He went to the Bangsamoro region to check on the effects and aftermath of the storm. He presided over a regional situation briefing in DOS, Maguindanao del Norte.
The region in comprised of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area (SGA) made up of 63 barangays or villages in North Cotabato, but under the BARMM jurisdiction.
Marcos, Jr. listen to situation briefing from BARMM officials
Creating the BARMM was the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) that implemented the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the overall peace pact between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
At the briefing were Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim, Sinarimbo, and other regional officials, with some national officials accompanying Marcos.
The President learned, as reported by Radio Television Malacanang (RTVM), from the briefing based on reports the BARMM’s Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence (READi) under the wings of the MILG, that over 500,000 persons of 442 barangays were affected.
As a result, the Bangsamoro government declared a state of emergency in the whole territory of the autonomous government.
Last weekend as “Paeng” was barreling through parts of the country in the Bicol Region and other areas, the President convened a full council meeting with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) as he monitored the weather incident’s onslaught.
It was at the meeting the President “raised concerns on the massive flooding and landslide in BARMM that left many people homeless.”
From the air, the President also saw swaths of areas with no vegetation or trees, which could mean trees were felled by human intervention. Mountains stripped of trees and vegetation have blame for landslides in some parts of the country.
Marcos then “directed national government agencies to extend full assistance and expedite search, rescue and relief operations to help thousands of affected Filipinos in the region.”
At the DOS situation briefing, the Bangsamoro government provided the President on the Situation Update and Actions the BARMM took vis-a-vis “Paeng’s” impact.
Sinarimbo said the regional government provided the following to the President:
- 1. Affected population including details of death and damages on critical infra such as roads and bridges.
- 2. Actions taken prior to the crisis, during the crisis and Search Rescue and Retrieval operations during the height of the flooding.
- 3. Inventory of resources available in the Regional Government, how many has been distributed, remaining resources and Status of Funds available for use in this crisis.