© Coast Guard District-Southern VisayasFlood-hit residents of Barangay Aguisan in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, were rescued by personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard yesterday, July 18, 2025.
The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) said heavy rain from the southwest monsoon, enhanced by Tropical Storm Crising (Wipha) as it approached Northern Luzon on Friday, July 18, inundated low-lying areas in Negros Occidental's 5th and 6th districts. The rain submerged roads, triggered landslides, and prompted class suspensions in at least 18 localities.
Crising was categorized as a tropical depression on Thursday, but it intensified into a tropical storm at 2 am on Friday.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) said 2,243 families were affected in Kabankalan (464), Himamaylan (489), and Sipalay (16), as well as in Ilog (37), Isabela (720), Hinoba-an (221), Cauayan (295), Binalbagan (142), Moises Padilla (159), and Hinigaran.
Floodwaters reached up to three feet in some areas, leaving roads impassable for hours.
Landslides were reported in Barangay Culipapa in Hinoba-an and in Sitios Mauboy and San Francisco in Barangay Nabulao and Sitio Campones in Barangay Maricalum in Sipalay.
PENRO head Joan Nathaniel Gerangaya said it has become evident that the the worsening floods were a result of the loss of forests in southern Negros Occidental.
Southern Negros Occidental's last remaining primary forest is a 10,000-hectare area known as the "Wilderness" in Barangay Damutan, Hinoba-an. But environmental watchdog Green Alert Network said even that is now at risk.
"Wilderness is also vanishing, or in a sad state, too," said the group's founder, Rusty Biñas.
Some 547,000 hectares of natural forests, including parts of Wilderness, were lost in the province in 2024, according to Global Forest Watch (GFW).
In 2020, Negros Occidental had about 227,000 hectares of natural forest, including the 80,454-hectare Northern Negros Natural Park and the 24,557-hectare Mount Kanlaon Natural Park, both in the northern and central parts of the province.
Hinoba-an Mayor Daph Reliquias said illegal logging activities had taken place in the Wilderness before he took office in 2022.
He said residents of Barangay Damutan in Hinoba-an were previously drawn to illegal logging in the Wilderness area, cutting down native tree species such as narra, palagtingan, and tibolo to sell to boat makers in nearby Basay town in Negros Oriental.
Reliquias said such activities were stopped after the town government stepped up its campaign to protect the forest.
The local government built a watchtower in a strategic area of the forest, increased the number of forest guards, and conducted geotagging of the threatened areas, though no alarming degradation has been recorded recently.
Still, four of the town's 13 barangays were flooded, affecting 61 families or 226 individuals, the town's disaster office said.
Gerangaya called the July 17 rainfall "extraordinary," and warned that southern Negros's major watersheds - Ilog-Hilabangan, Sipalay, and Kamolo - were under pressure.
"This is part of climate change. But flooding could somehow be avoided if only we had more forests," he said.
Gerangaya urged local governments to invest in reforesting watershed surface runoff areas to help prevent future floods.
Rusty Biñas, founder of Green Alert Network, urged local officials to go strict against construction projects in upland public lands and protected areas.
"The current structures situated either in public land and even in protected areas contribute to flooding in the lowlands because before their erection in the hilltops, scores of trees will be damaged first," he said."If the province will continue to ignore our urgent call, then, flooding will remain a problem anywhere in Negros Occidental during heavy downpour."
On July 11 and 12, severe flooding also struck the cities of Talisay and Bacolod in the northern and central parts of the province, displacing thousands.
isn't negro a bad word?
or remind you of one that is bad?
we must be very careful with free speech.
lest we lose it.
and we will only have ourselves to blame.
i am shocked by this abuse or potential abuse. the potentiality is very serious.
i am shocked.
saddened.
and distressed.
(sarcasm)
ned,
out