“Brimming River”

(Usbaw Sa Suba)

Erlea Mae B. Ilisan

Kate A. Rivera

Lean Faye L. Cruda

Kristine Batingal

Gemvirh A. Dumanlag

Kyla Claudette B. Capalar

Aubry P. Gucor

Annabelia Memoracion

Den Karylle B. Magsayo

 Introduction

Background of the Study

For many years, due to typhoons people have been experiencing

massive floods in the Philippines. Floods may occur anytime due to

typhoons. Flood is an overflow of a large amount of water beyond

its normal limits. It may differ how strong the typhoon will affect

the country. Floods often happen due to heavy rainfall along with.

Flash floods which can be extremely dangerous. The seriousness of

flood depends on the intensity and duration of precipitation,

surface slope of the region and nature of the surface soil and

covering vegetation.

Floods may cause damages to humans, crops, properties and

others. There are some measures of flood control needed to protect,

reduce or mitigate flood damages. Flash flood will also be the

cause made by people. Many existence living in this community will

suffer including our environment. Flash floods can be rank as one

of the calamities who caused a lot of damage in our cities. During

flash floods, many lives will also be affected.

 The deadliest recorded typhoon that hit the Philippines is

the Haiphong in October 8, 1881. Haiphong crossed the Philippines,

killing over 20,000 people in the “Northern” part of the

Philippines. According to James P. Terry’s article, its

frightening number of deaths was considered as the third deadliest

typhoon in the world that only crossed the Philippines.

Magazine writers Jeffrey R. Ambrose and Samuel C. Baxter also

made a statement about a very destructive Typhoon that caused

damage over a million pesos, and killed over 10,000 people in one

city. Typhoon Haiyan left a devastating state.

In Bukidnon, Walter I. Balane of MindaNews! wrote article of

Bukidnon under warning for a Typhoon landfall last year when Vinta

was on its way. He stated that Bukidnon always had problems

whenever there is a Typhoon that will hit the area because the

location is a prone area to floods.

He also stated that the most affected are the residents that

live near the Pulangui River. He also mentioned the area received

the most warnings for flashfloods.

Rise of water landed warnings in the city’s local radios here

in Valencia, Bukidnon. The warnings informed people regarding

evacuate ions. Local radio stations broadcasted how Typhoon Vinta

would commence its landfall and cause floods to Batangan. The news

indicated how the water had reached its peak and almost overlapped
the new bridge of Batangan. Also due to the strong current the

1851 Batangan had fallen and washed out.

Pulangui River is the longest river located in the province of

Bukidnon. It is one of the major tributaries of the Rio Grande de

Mindanao, and it is the extensive river system in Mindanao,

Philippines.

It is therefore necessary to research how flashfloods affect in

our local city particularly at Barangay Batangan.

 Methodology

A. Entry Protocol

We will first create a letter for us to send to the

Barangay Captain at Barangay Batangan, Valencia Bukidnon to

ask permission to interview a few people that experienced the

flood.

B. Location of the Study

The study will be conducted at Barangay Valencia City

Bukidnon. For this place is where the people affected by the

flood lines. This will make us gather information.

C. Material and Equipment

The materials needed for this research would be the

following: Phone, to be used as our recording device during

the interview. Next up would be a camera, to film the whole

interview. Next would be our research notebook where we keep

our questions and so that we wouldn’t be of track of our

questions.
D. Collection of Sample

The researchers will conduct the study to the people who

are affected by the floods. The researchers chose Barangay

Batangan Valencia City, Bukidnon. The researchers chosen that

area because they want to know how people survive those trials

and hard worship, and they want to discover why people still

live in there when their place are commonly affected by flood.

 Statement of the Problem

This paper investigated the lives of the victims.

Specifically, it aims to answer the following questions.

1. What are the effects of flooding to the affected residents?

2. How do the residents affected by flood cope after the

disaster?

3. What measure/s could be made to avoid their disaster?

Objective of the Study

This paper investigates the objectives of the study for the

researcher to know the following;

1. To distinguish the location and impacts of flood to the

victims.

2. To determine the resident affected by flood cope after the

disaster.

3. To identify the measure that could be made to avoid the

disaster.
 Review of Related Literature

Based on the studies of the researchers, typhoons reaching

Philippines have become stronger and more devastating. Two of the

most recent ones, Yolanda (Haiyan) and Pablo (Bopha) were

considered as category 5 storms. Jo Brianne Briones (2014) found

that during the typhoon Yolanda there are 6,201 dead recorded and

not all of them are recognized. While the injured people are 28,626

and the number of people who are still missing is 1,785. Tognasan

and Pancho (2013) found out that in typhoon Pablo there are over

6 million people who were affected and a flash floods that killed

over 400 people while there are 300 that are still missing. NDRRMC

planned to implement the cluster approach coordination mechanism

to immediately address the needs and requirements in the areas in

Mindanao. Typhoon Pablo was the most deadly storm globally in 2012,

and reportedly the most powerful to hit Southern Mindanao in more

than 100 years. According to PAG ASA, the typhoon is expected to

affect Visayas and Mindanao areas. PAGASA weather division chief

Robert Sawi said floods and landslides are possible in Surigao,

Davao, Compostela Valley, Misamis, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga,

Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, Negros, Panay and Mindoro. It was the time

where the pulangui river had reach into its highest level. It was

also announced by the officials to declare Bukidnon in a state of

calamity. Disasters happens in the Pulangui river every year.

 According to Junerey Valero (2017), coordinator of the City

Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) of

Valencia, told MindaNews over telephone that evacuation in 11

barangays near the Pulangi River, whose water rose to critical

level, began at 9:35 p.m. until past midnight. Among affected

barangays were Poblacion, San Isidro, Catumbalon, Batangan,

Kahaponan, and Maapag.

The Provincial DRRMO, meanwhile, noted that as of 1:30 a.m.

Thursday, they have evacuated residents to covered courts in

Barangay Lumbo, Sitio Kawayanon in Barangay Maapag, Catumbalon,

San Isidro and Puroks 1, 2, 5, 11, 12 and 13 in Barangay Poblacion.

Residents were likewise evacuated in parts of Barangay Batangan,

namely, Sitio Hinawaan, Purok 1, 1a, 3 and 4 Gwaan Compoud.

The PDRRMO could not yet provide data as to number of evacuees

as the Valencia CDRRMO personnel are still conducting evacuations

when contacted before dawn today.

In San Fernando town, an initial report from the Bukidnon

PDRRMC said seven families have been evacuated due to flooding

incident due to the nonstop rains in Barangay Halapitan. As of 11

p.m. Wednesday, 32 persons, including an unidentified number of

children, have been evacuated.

 PAG ASA (2017) has continued to warn of possible flooding “in

low lying areas and near river channels and landslides over

mountainous areas” in many parts of Mindanao because of the

“tailend of a cold front.” Included in PAGASA’s “yellow warning

level” in its heavy rainfall advisory released 7 a.m. Thursday are

Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del

Sur, Dinagat Islands, Siargao Islands, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental,

Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Davao Region, Compostela Valley,

Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotbato, Zamboanga Peninsula and

Basilan. This happenings happens last January 19,2017 in Bukidnon.

Javlin Cordova(2013) said that they had been using the

platform to assess danger of flooding from rivers since they

covered typhoon Pablo last year. “So far it had been accurate and

it helped us in our work,” he added.

During the strike of super typhoon “Yolanda” and tropical

depression “Zoraida,” PDRRMC personnel took turns in virtually

monitoring water levels in Bukidnon’s river systems so they could

use it in advisories and alerts. The sharpest increase was observed

in Manuto Bridge in Quezon town from 2.59 meters at around 1:50

p.m. on Nov. 11 to 4.47 meters as of 1:30 p.m. the next day. The

bridge is near Brgy. Salawagan, where about 44 families from nearby

Brgy. Cawayan sought refuge after fleeing their homes to respond

to calls for pre-emptive evacuations. About 360 families from 7 of

Bukidnon’s 464 barangays fled when “Zoraida” made landfall at 55

kilometers per hour. Bukidnon and a number other provinces were

placed under storm signal no. 1. “Zoraida” eventually weakened and

was identified as a low pressure area (LPA) as it brought only

sporadic rains and caused the pre-emptive evacuations and

suspension of classes.

Ma. Leah Barquez and other PDRRMC personnel, nevertheless,

monitored the situation in 20 towns and two cities from reports of

local DRRMC officials and from the NOAH website.

At a section on “weather stations” and “stream gauges” the

monitor screen shows figures for the water levels of key river

systems in the province where the DOST installed reading stations.

In Malaybalay City, there were monitoring points in the

Diversion Bridge in Sumpong for Sawaga River, in Zamboanguita

Bridge in the city’s Upper Pulangi area, and in Manupali Bridge,

which is at Malaybalay’s boundary with Valencia City. In Valencia

City, the reading stations are at the Lumbayao Bridge in Brgy.

Lumbayao and in Valencia Bridge in Batangan. All three measure

water level at the Pulangi River.In northern Bukidnon, there are

water level reading stations in Kilabing Spillway and Arch Bridge

in Malitbog, Kabula and Bubunawan bridges in Baungon, and Mangima

Bridge in Manolo Fortich.

 According to the Philippines Atmospheric, Geophysical, and

Astronomical Services Administration (2012), Pablo was 375 miles

in diameter and packed gusts up to 130 mph with torrential rains

on average over one inch per hour. Likewise, when Sendong made

landfall, it dumped more than a month’s worth of average rainfall

in just 12 hours, sparking flash floods in the middle of the night

and trapping hundreds of thousands of residents. In relation to 40

years of meteorological records, Mindanao has not experienced such

storms, heavy rainfall, and landslides since Typhoon Titang hit

back in 1970.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and

Management Council (2012), as of December 18, the death toll from

Pablo had reached 1,046 people with 841 still missing, and damages

to agriculture reaching $398 million, infrastructure $190.4

million, and private property $1.2 million.

Some blame the high death toll and Mindanao’s extreme

vulnerability to such strong storms, floods, and landslides on the

unabated illegal logging and mining operations in the area.

However, there isn’t much scientific evidence from past flood

tragedies to confirm this theory. The Society of Filipino Foresters

issued a statement earlier this year referencing past typhoons

Ondoy (2009) and Sendong (2011) and recognizing the fact that

“forests can help minimize but cannot totally prevent the

occurrence of floods” and that massive floods are more a result of

weak infrastructure and the ever increasing amount of moisture in

the atmosphere.

Although deforestation and environmental degradation play a

role in amplifying the destruction that occurs during such extreme

weather events, climate change is more to blame for directly

affecting the severity of flooding endured than the cut logs and

debris that clog waterways and lead to overflowing river banks. In

the same sense, weak disaster preparedness and disaster risk

management plans are also partly to blame for the large number of

lives lost in natural disasters and for continuing to allow

populations to live in geo-hazardous areas.

As The Asia Foundation’s country representative in the

Philippines, Steven Rood, further explains: “The only time I saw

a serious examination of the issue of illegal logging and mining

causing more severe floods was more than a decade ago with respect

to Ormoc City and the Typhoon Uring flooding tragedy that happened

down in the Visayas in 1991 (in a JICA-funded flood mitigation

control study). The data were clear – there was simply too much

rain for any ecosystem to absorb, and too many people living along

the river banks in danger zones. That there were logs washed down

is undeniable, but this had nothing to do with the extent of the

flood and little to do with the damages.”

 According to IPCC (2012), as average global temperatures

rise, the warmer atmosphere can also hold more moisture, about 4

percent more per degree Fahrenheit temperature increase. The

atmosphere’s water vapor content has increased by about 0.41

kilograms per square meter (kg/m²) per decade since 1988. A warmer

atmosphere leads to more evaporation of ocean water, meaning that

each tropical storm that forms has more potential water to pull

from and therefore drench in its wake. The citizens of the

communities in Southern Mindanao, especially along the coastal

towns of Compostela Valley and Davao de Sur provinces who were the

first to be hit by Pablo, had never before experienced that kind

of typhoon in their whole lives.

Storms are becoming stronger, weather patterns are changing,

and, frighteningly, this is becoming the “new normal.” Given the

fact that Manila was recently rated the second most vulnerable

city in the world to climate change for 2013 (only behind Dhaka,

Bangladesh), there is great merit given to efforts that can build

the resiliency of communities to withstand such extreme weather

events in the future. In the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy in 2009,

both local and international NGOs began lobbying for a national

disaster management plan, which was eventually passed the

following year and known as the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction

Management Act of 2010. The new law illustrates a shift in the

response of local authorities toward disaster risk reduction,

rather than solely relying on response and relief.

Technical assistance is available, such as AusAID’s support

to an aerial survey of metro Manila to generate a three-

dimensional, geo-hazard map of the metropolis. In 2012, USAID/OFDA

provided over $4.1 million for disaster risk reduction activities,

mainly in the areas of food security and to improve local

humanitarian coordination in the Philippines. These sort of

climate change adaptation strategies are working. After Pablo,

engineer Armen A Cuenca, the deputy in charge of Cagayan de Oro’s

disaster risk reduction management office, said that “early

warning alert systems and pre-planned shelters this year were one

of the reasons there were zero casualties in the city, which has

a population of around 700,000.” Preparedness remains the key to

resilience. Extreme weather events, such as typhoons, droughts,

floods, also have influential human capital investment impacts.

Anttila-Hughes & Hsiang (2013) documented the economic impacts of

typhoon Pablo for Filipino households. Income loss a year after

typhoon exposure was matched with a reduction of household

expenditures, which decreased by 7.1% for the average Filipino

household in the average year. This reduction in expenditures

occurred mostly in human capital investments, such as medicine,

education, and high nutrient foods. All of the affected investments

are particularly important for the healthy development of young

children. Household health outcomes were examined using infant

mortality and it was found that typhoons cause infant mortality to

rise one year after a typhoon and that a majority of these infant

deaths are female. These negative household health outcomes,

especially for female infants, coupled with the reductions in human

investments suggests that the negative economic impacts from

typhoons are causing households to allocate human capital

resources differently among children following a typhoon in the

Philippines. Similarly, Baez and Santos (2007) found that natural

disasters have a large and negative effect on children’s

nutritional status. Specifically, children were twice as likely to

be undernourished due to being exposed to a hurricane. On the other

hand, there is some evidence that suggests that families can

maintain a critical level of health investments for children by

shifting spending away from other goods or investments. After

examining evidence from a Super Typhoon that hit the Filipino

island of Cebu, Deuchert and Felfe (2013) found no decline in

objective or subjective health investments for children; affected

human capital investments pertained more towards decreases in

education.
 Definition of Terms

 Flood

- A rising and overflowing of a body of water especially unto

normally dry land.

 Typhoon

- An extremely large hurricane that is powerful and

destructive storm.

 River

- A large natural flow of water that crosses an area of land

and goes into an ocean, a lake, etc.

 Horrendous

- Very bad or unpleasant

 Tributaries

- Paying tribute to another to acknowledge submission to

obtain protection or to purchase peace.

 Calamity

- An event that causes great harm and suffering.

 Precipitation

- Water that falls to the ground as rain, snow, etc.

- The quality of state of being precipitate.

 Mitigate

- To make (something) less severe, harmful, or painful.

- To cause to become less harsh or hostile.

 Massive

- Very large and heavy

 Vegetation

- Plants that cover a particular area

 Significance of the Study

This study would help the residents in disaster preparednes.

To help the resident be more alert in times when the water has

slowly risen. Upon being prepared of what will happen, this will

also help our fellow students avoid absenteeism in school, where

as the families would not be worried. It will also give the idea

how to avoid casualties, or at least lessen them. This will also

give our rescuers, maybe even the victims, a quick emergency

response once a warning has been sent out. In conclusion, it will

be beneficial to the residents living there for it gives more

knowledge on the disasters that will happen again.

Scope and Delimitations of the Study

The researcher will conduct this study in Barangay Batangan,

Valencia City, Bukidnon. Our study will be conducted within a week.

The researcher will start conducting at exactly 9:00 o’clock in

the morning until 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon. The researchers

will interview 5 people only and will focus on one very interesting

story. The study will not go beyond Barangay Batangan. It will be

conducted only in that area. This will help the researchers gather

the information and experiences of the victims living there.