Bangsamoro Gov’t Responds to Flooding in Pagalungan Municipality

Sacks of rice for flood victims. (Credit: MILG)

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COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro government has responded to the flooding in some areas of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) chief Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo reported this over the week, bringing sacks of rice for residents. The MILG is one of the BARMM’s primary ministries.

His team from the MILG Bangsamoro Rapid Emergency Action for Disaster Incidence (READi) traveled to the municipality of Pagalungan and later to the clusters of barangays (villages) in the Special Geographic Area (SGA), such as in Pikit, Kabacan, Midsayap, and Pigkawayan.

The three municipalities — Kabacan, Midsayap, and Pigkawayan are under the North Cotabato local government units (LGU), but some of their barangays chose to join and be under the jurisdiction of the Bangsamoro region when their eligible voters voted “yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019.

“This is by far the biggest flooding in Pagalungan in recent memories as it submerged the whole 12 barangays of Pagalungan,” Sinarimbo noted.
We needed to be ferried by the payloader to be able to reach the municipal hall of Pagalungan. The active Mayor Salik Mamasabulod as usual is here to welcome us and brief us on the situation of his constituents,” the MILG chief said. He is also the spokesperson of BARMM.
Sinarimbo said MILG’s Rescue Team since June 22 has deployed rubber boats and other emergency assets of the READi to assist the affected residents in evacuating to higher grounds.
“We assure our people that following the directive of the Chief Minister Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim, we will continue to respond to their needs,” the MILG chief said.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the 63 barangays or villages dubbed Special Geographic Area (SGA) that voted “yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.

According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. — EDD K. USMAN (✓)

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