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It's very hard to predict when nature take its toll.
Residents living near the foot slopes of Matutum, already used to the afternoon rains, were in terrible shocked when flashflood struck on the afternoon of May 12, Saturday, damaging crops and properties, affecting 56 families in Sitios Tukay-el and Mambusong, Cebuano, here.
Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC) has estimated the damage at P300,000.00. No casualty was recorded, however.
Of the fifty six affected families, only the house of Zosimo Alvarez was destroyed, others were partially damaged, with knee deep mudslides on the ground.
The Uyag Uyag farm on the mountain slope of Mambusong was also hit by landslide destroying its two goat buildings costing P200,000.00, and burrying 5 commercial goats amouting to P75,000.00.
Uyag Uyag, a Maguindanaon term for livelihood, is run by Better Living Training Center (BLTC), a non sectarian group providing skills training to farmers around the region.
The farm is practicing countour and organic farming technologies. It is being eyed as model farm on sustainable farming.
Joseph Naredo, the Uyag Uyag farm manager said that the area was already denuded when they acquired it some two years back.
"This was a landslide area before, we do contour farming and planted some vetiver grass to restore back the vegetation and to prevent landslides, however, the rainfall has accumulated so much water that the lands could no longer handle, and this resulted to landslide" Naredo said.
MDRRMC estimated Uyag Uyag farm damaged at P275,000.00.
Meanwhile, MDRRMC Chair, Reynaldo S. Tamayo, Jr. has mobilized its members and provided immediate validation, and provision of financial assitance and distribution of food supplies and other goods to affected families.
Prior to this, the local government has laid down to plan to relocate all houses along the riverbank to reduce the potential damage to lives and properties during rainy season.
Dr. Nelso M. Pampolina, associate professor of the University of the Philippines, College of Forestry, in Los Banos, Laguna, who is voluntarily working for biodiversity conservation in Mt. Matutum said "This is a wake up call, especially those occupying on Mt. Matutum foot slopes, we have to act to prevent several occurences in the future."
Pampolina, a resident of this municipality is providing technical assistance for the establishment of "biodiversity corridor and riparian zones" leading to Mt. Matutum Protected Landscape.
The Department of Environment of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has classified Sitio Tukay-el, Cebuano as flood prone area.
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