Bushfires hit upland areas in 2 Cotabato municipalities

COTABATO CITY — Vast swaths of grasslands and forests in two towns in Cotabato province were razed by scattered wildfires since Sunday, withered early on and made fire-prone by lack of rain since February.

Some 30 hectares of grasslands in the hinterland Gambodes and Binoungan areas in Arakan town were hit one after another by fire prior to the conflagration on Wednesday in a wide bushland in Barangay Lower Binay in Magpet.

The wildfire in Lower Binay was first noticed from a distance by barangay officials and local forest rangers on Wednesday. It was put off by villagers and responders from the Magpet local government unit and the Bureau of Fire Protection around eight hours later.

Local officials and traditional community elders placed at least 30 hectares their estimate of the fire-stricken forested area in Lower Binay.

Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza told reporters on Wednesday that she has directed the personnel of their Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to plan out, along with municipal officials, measures to forestall bushfires, which can imminently happen as the summer season fully sets in.

“We are waiting for the results of the joint investigation on these fires by the local government units in Arakan and in Magpet and the Bureau of Fire Protection,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said she has also tasked their PDRRMO to check if there were villagers displaced by the three separate bushfires for them to be provided with essential humanitarian support.

She said she is thankful to the police, the BFP and private volunteer disaster response groups for cooperating in preventing the spread of wildfires that hit the two hinterland towns that are under her jurisdiction.