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Flooding has submerged not just residential areas but also affected schools and hampered public services in Maguindanao.
At least 25,000 persons in 15 villages of Sultan sa Barongis in Maguindanao province have been displaced by floods,
which in some areas were as bad as neck deep, officials said.
Sultan sa Barongis Mayor Ramdatu Angas said the local government has declared a state of calamity in the entire town as flood water from the Ala River has been rising due to the torrential rain in the mountains of Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato.
Rasol Angas, a resident of Barangay Barurao, one of the hardest-hit villages,
said the characteristics of flood water remained unpredictable as it receded and suddenly rose although Maguindanao experienced no rain.
"It could be raining up there in the mountains of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat," he said, pointing at Daguma ranges south of Sultan Kudarat province.
Zenaida Sandig, 28, a resident of Barangay Paidung, said the water level in her village was at its highest late Saturday afternoon,
reaching as high as five feet.
Sultan sa Barongis, a town situated in the borders of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, is at the direct path of Ala river, a major tributary emanating from South Cotabato.
