CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/18 February) —   Talking about climate change is useless if there is no attitude change,  Senator Teoffisto Guingona said in his opening address at the Mindanao Summit on Disaster Risk Reduction and Geo-hazard Awareness. “It would be useless if we stop at merely talking about Climate Change. There is another important [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/14 February) – More than 30 families temporarily housed in tents in relocation sites here went into panic when heavy rains caused flood in the relocation area Monday evening. The newly installed Tent City 2 at Kalubihan in Sitio Calaanan, Barangay Canitoan hosts 250 families. “Most of the people here have [...]

RECOVERY. Army soldiers unload cooking utensils for Typhoon Sendong survivors at the Xavier University Ecoville resettlement site in Barangay Lumbia in Cagayan de Oro City on Feb. 10, 2012. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

SHARED CLASSROOMS. Grade school students share a basketball court after storm Sendong destroyed their classrooms in Balulang Elementary School in Cagayan de Oro City on Feb. 5, 2012. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/04 Feb) — Even as donors’ aid comes in “trickles,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) raised to $39 million (around P1.7 billion) its appeal for financial assistance to victims of Tropical Storm Sendong (international name Washi), which left at least 1,200 persons dead and thousands homeless in [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/30 January) —The legal counsel of the opposition politicians here who filed an administrative case against City Mayor Vicente Y. Emano last week, said his sources at the Palace confirmed it has ordered the mayor to submit his reply within 15 days. “I can’t confirm that (the suspension order has been [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/26 January) – More than 7,000 residents here gathered on top of the Kagay-an Bridge Wednesday night lighting candles and listening to the tales of the survivors of the flood that killed hundreds and wiped out entire villages December 17 last year. It was a very emotional night for most of [...]

Students form a big “HEAL CDO” using candles on top of Kagay-an Bridge in Cagayan de Oro Wednesday night, Jan. 25, 2012, to mark the 40th day after storm Sendong devastated the city and nearby Iligan. Thousands of residents came to pray and light candles during the ecumenical Mass for the 670 people who died [...]

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/25 January) – President Benigno S. Aquino III today told officials of the National Housing Authority (NHA) to finish all the houses for suvivors of floods brought by tropical storm Sendong last month by June 2012. “Dapat ipangako nyo na by June 2012, tapos na ang lahat na mga bahay dito,” (You should [...]

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/25 January) – The Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) or Pag-IBIG Fund has declared a three month-moratorium on housing loan payments for its member-borrowers who were affected by the destruction caused by tropical storm “Sendong.” In an emailed statement Wednesday, Vice President Jejomar Binay, who chairs the Pag-IBIG board of trustees, said the [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/24 January) — President Benigno Aquino III will arrive here Wednesday morning (Jan. 25) to check on the rehabilitation and resettlement efforts for flood survivors, exactly 40 days after tropical storm Sendong devastated Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities. This is the second time for Aquino came to visit the two [...]

DOG THERAPY. Sendong child survivors get to walk with Nike, a 6-year-old Golden Retriever owned by Iligan dog enthusiast Gary Po, in a psychosocial intervention facilitated by the group Ginhawa at an evacuation center at Barangay Sta. Filomena in Iligan City 21 January 2012. Nike has been a Hall of Famer in national dog competitions. [...]

IILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/19 January)  –  Officials here are demanding a probe on logging operations in the Lanao provinces which survivors of the flashfloods on December 16-17 blame for the massive destruction of lives and property in the villages of Orchids, Santiago and Bayog island. Iligan’s representative to Congress, Vicente Belmonte, has asked Congress in a [...]

BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/19 January) — Environmental groups warn that Caraga region could be the next environmental disaster  area after Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities if the local government units and government agencies do not take action soon. “As the capital of extractive activities in the Philippines and the number one region in climate change [...]

HINATUAN, Surigao del Sur (MindaNews/19 January) – When the killer tropical storm “Sendong” hit landfall in the Philippines, it first battered the coastal municipality of Hinatuan in Surigao del Sur, in Mindanao Island’s eastern seaboard facing the Pacific Ocean. PAGASA’s multimillion-peso doppler radar, situated right in the middle of Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur, is used [...]

Jose Plangganan was luckier than his neighbors whose houses (on the left side) in Barangay Talisay, Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur were totally destroyed by Sendong. He is doing repair work for the minor damage in his house on January 12. Photo by Bobby Timonera / MindaNews-SCLF-Fastenopfer | Read Story

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/16 January) — An irate village chief has “strongly advised” local counterparts of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) to file criminal cases against the individuals who allegedly looted a Unicef truck carrying relief goods on Friday last week. In an interview today, barangay Consolacion chair Cesar Pagapulaan Sr. [...]

Rivers run through Iligan City, which is why its name is Iligan. The city’s linguistic origin is from the word ilig, which according to the Iliganons means to flow. There are many rivers that flow across the breath and length of Iligan City, some of which originate from the uplands of Lanao del Sur and ultimately [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/14 January) — A coalition of religious, nongovernment and civil society organizations today said they will advance “a bigger commitment to prevent more Sendongs by working for climate and economic justice” at the same time that they started giving stress debriefing sessions for survivors of the flood brought by Storm Sendong [...]

Children join a play and art therapy organized by the group called Ginhawa which provide psychosocial support for Sendong survivors temporarily housed at an evacuation center in Sta. Filomena, Iligan City on Monday Jan. 9, 2012. Contributed photo By Miriam Roxas-Timonera

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/3 Jan) – Health officials here are scrambling to get ahead of the water-borne disease as slowly but steadily fatalities of Leptospirosis continue to climb, most of whom come from areas worst-hit by flash floods brought by tropical storm Sendong. According to the latest monitor of the regional office of the [...]

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT (MindaNews/3 Jan) – The horrific impact of Sendong exposes not just the geo-hazards faced by the premier city of northern Mindanao but the deep social malaise relegated to the sidelines by the daily ruckus that characterize the developing city of over half a million people. Several issues were raised on why there [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/2 Jan) – The principal of the school that has now become the most congested evacuation center in Barangay Carmen here said they will resume classes as scheduled on Tuesday, albeit in “learning tents” and with no chairs nor tables since all of its 96 classrooms are still filled with Sendong [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/2 Jan) – Environmental advocacy groups, civil society organizations, media organizations and individuals, enraged at the what they perceived as “gross negligence of duty” on the part of City Hall, gathered Friday last week to launch a multi-sectoral movement to ensure the devastation brought by tropical storm Sendong’s magnitude will not [...]

A little girl sleeps on the hallway of the West City Central School in Barangay Carmen, Cagayan de Oro on January 2, 2012. Her family took temporary shelter in the school after their house in nearby Acasia Street was swept away by the flood. MindaNews photo by Froilan Gallardo

Children play under the destroyed Old Mandulog Bridge in Barangay Hinaplanon, Iligan City on December 27, 2011, amid the pile of logs and debris brought by the December 16-17 flashfloods spawned by typhoon Sendong. MindaNews Photo by Ruby Thursday More | Read Story

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/01 January) –  From the Mandulog bridge along the Iligan-Cagayan de Oro highway, one can clearly see how the lethal combination of floodwaters,  mud and logs  rammed into Barangay Hinaplanon late evening of December 16 to the early hours of December 17. The riverside village is now a vast wasteland. Piles of logs [...]

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/31 December) – Carpenter Fortunato Paradillo lost not only his house and all his belongings but also his address: Bayug Island, the village where he raised his family is gone, wiped out by the December 17 flashfloods. He also lost his 22 chickens and three pigs but 55-year old  Paradillo considers himself fortunate. [...]

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/30 December) — As early as October 2010, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council in Northern Mindanao had warned of more floods until 2011. In a MindaNews report (October 16, 2011), Director Carmelito Lupo of the regional Office of Civil Defense was quoted to have said that the weak to moderate La Nina that started in July that year could further strengthen based on “statistical model forecasts.”

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/28 Dec) – True or not, but some residents in the coastal barangay of Santiago here claim that almost every night, they are hearing voices crying for help coming from the pile of logs swept from the mountains during the flashflood dawn of December 17. Fisherfolk Jaime Jambre, one of the flood surviors [...]

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/28 Dec) – The city government of Iligan is eyeing to make use of lands owned by the National Steel Corporation (NSC) as relocation site for victims of the flood that damaged thousands of homes here. Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the city government intends to purchase a 10-hectare property from the National Steel [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 December) –  The death toll from typhoon Sendong’s “tsunami in reverse” in Northern Mindanao last week is the second highest in Mindanao in 35 years, second only to the death toll from the 1976 tsunami along the Moro Gulf. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) report as of  2 [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/27 December) — The city government recently received a Jesuit-owned land to serve as a relocation site for the victims of the flood brought by Tropical Storm Sendong, and cash-donations from even the most unlikely donors—the local revolutionary movement and inmates at the provincial jail of Misamis Oriental. In a letter [...]

ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews/25 December) – The photograph of five-year old Maykaela P. Mansueto is just one among many posted on the walls of the Capin Funeral Homes in Camague, the message above the photograph in huge fonts, all caps: “Still Missing.” It is Friday afternoon,  December 23, six days after the flash floods that killed [...]

 CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/25 December) —  They lost their little house by the river, they have been staying and sleeping under the flyover since Saturday,  they have no money to prepare for even the simplest Noche Buena,  but Merlyn Rejas says it is still a happy Christmas “kay buhi ming tanan” (because we’re all [...]

As we approach Christmas week and the coming of the new year, may I propose a Family-Adopt-a-Family program. Families unaffected by the flood can invite to their homes an evacuee family, especially those that have lost their homes or loved ones, for a few days or for a Christmas meal to share the spirit of the season. May the new-born child in the manger fill us with the spirit of solidarity in moments of adversity and hope in the sharing of love and life with one another. “Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart” (Ps. 90).

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 December) — After a ‘heart to heart’ talk with my DOD this afternoon when he came early from work, I discovered that we share a somewhat cynical view of Christmas. Not the entire concept, mind. We do believe in God, but aside from ‘the thought that counts’, Christmastime’s become a hassle about [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews/24 December) — Amid the desperation and anxiety in the aftermath of the flood caused by Typhoon Sendong, the national government handed out Christmas packages containing beef ham and quezo de bola for the Noche Buena tonight of thousands of flood survivors in jam-packed evacuation centers. “You will have your Noche Buena [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/24 December) –  Some churches in the city may not be able to hold Aguinaldo masses on Christmas Eve as these were converted into evacuation centers to accommodate some  36,000 families affected by the floods induced by Tropical Storm Sendong, Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said. In his pastoral letter, [...]

MANILA (MindaNews/24 December) — The devastating flash floods that struck Northern Mindanao and killed at least 1,100 residents on December 17 can be repeated” in Southwestern Mindanao if the large-scale Tampakan copper-gold project of  Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI) will be allowed to proceed, a local militant group warned. Tropical storm Sendong (international name “Washi”) brought [...]

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/23 December) — President Benigno S. Aquino III has allocated P450 million for the core shelter program of Typhoon Sendong’s flashflood victims in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities. The President made the announcement in his visit to the flood victims at the Cagayan de Oro City Central School this week. [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/23 December) – Playing too much computer games makes some sense, sometimes. When I got a message from Maj. Jacob Obligado, chief of the 10th Civil Military Operations (CMO) Battalion, saying that as of 8 a.m. on Thursday, they had so far filled up 18 M35 trucks with relief aid for flashflood victims [...]

Military’s M35 trucks neogotiate the national highway on Friday morning. The 25-vehicle convoy is carrying relief aid for victims of flashflood in cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan. MindaNews Photo by Ruby Thursday More | Read Story

Philippine Army soldiers prepare to load relief goods for Iligan and Cagayan de Oro at Eastern Mindanao Command on Thursday evening, December 22, 2011. Photo Courtesy of 10th CMO Battalion | Read Story

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/22 Dec) – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Mining and Geosciences Bureau (MGB-10) has repeatedly issued warnings of landslides and floods to local government units and has given recommendations on how to mitigate floods. But City Hall also insists it has warned people living in flood prone areas but [...]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/21 December) –  Riverside barangays that bore the brunt of typhoon Sendong’s fury in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities early Saturday morning “stood no chance to the torrent, the onslaught of large volumes of  water and mud,” Neric Acosta, Presidential Adviser for Environmental Protection said as he lamented the state of deforestation [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/22 December) — Newly-assumed OIC ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman is proceeding to Lanao del Sur Friday following claims by the provincial governor that “carabao logging” is to blame for the thousands of logs that rolled down into the Iligan coast as typhoon Sendong sent residents to their roofs – and their deaths — [...]

LIBORAN, Baungon, Bukidnon (MindaNews/22 Dec) – Farmer Reynor Doluna, 53, could still not accept that his namesake son is gone. Five days after it happened, his family is still at a loss after he was told that his son was among 51 others who remained missing after flash floods brought by tropical storm Sendong ravaged [...]

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews/22 December) —  The corpses of Sendong victims that were dumped in the city’s landfill in Cagayan de Oro City were transferred to a hangar in Lumbia airport on Wednesday upon orders of  Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo but he maintained there was “no dumping of bodies.” “Wala namang dumping of the bodies” [...]

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/22 Dec) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved Thursday the immediate release of a US$3-million grant to augment the ongoing relief operations in several areas in Northern Mindanao and Visayas that were affected by the recent onslaught of tropical storm Sendong. Neeraj Jain, ADB country director, said the financial assistance would [...]