PATIN-AY, PROSPERIDAD - 5 dead and 1 reported missing due to flood caused by consecutive days of heavy rains added with the Low Pressure which just entered last January 11 that brought the 14 municipalities of Agusan del Sur into a water-filled towns.

Dense of water occupied the different rivers and agricultural areas of the province that also killed and displaced innocent residents.

The names listed below are the reported dead as of January 14:

Melito Gortina, 19 years old, from Lucena, Prosperidad
Loreto Sabatin, 43 years old, from Magsaysay, Prosperidad
Adrian Alpeche Malayag, 1 year and 9 months old, from Taglatawan, Bayugan City
Emerlinda Artajo, 47 years old, from Caimpugan, Bunawan
Anna Marie Noble Ocite from San Francisco

Liza Moreno, 37 years old, from Nueva Era, Bunawan was reported missing and the Search and Rescue Agusan del Sur (SARAS) and local rescue units are still looking for her.

Not less than 128,396 persons and 121 barangays were affected by flood.

According to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (PDRRM) Action Officer Mr. Roberto Natividad, teams from provincial SARAS augmented in the search and rescue of the different affected municipalities.

Governor Adolph Edward G. Plaza and Vice Governor Santiago Cane Jr., visited the affected municipalities last Sunday, January 12, to check the status and the effect of the flood in the areas.

See: Gov. Plaza visits evacuation centers in Bunawan and Veruela.

The provincial government of Agusan del Sur is ready at any time in providing relief goods, since the municipalities can still provide enough goods to its residents. So, if the municipality can’t provide anymore, that will be the time that the provincial government will supplement the supply of goods, as a standard operating procedure of the province.


Image courtesy of Vice Governor Santiago Cane Jr.

Consecutively, the Provincial Government of Agusan del Sur awarded as one of the 2012 Highest Real Property Tax Collection in the entire Caraga region with efficiency on tax collection of over 119% held at Balanghay Hotel, Butuan City last December 2013.

In which, Governor Adolph Edward G. Plaza received the Plaque of Recognition in accordance to the said award from the Bureau of Local Government and Finance during the 1st day of the provincial government’s flag ceremony last January 6 .

In an interview with the Provincial Assessor, Mr. Cesar T. Rufila, a program called “Cleansing of Records” has been implemented to update the records of those who had real estate properties using their Computerized Real Property Tax Information System and it is currently used by the municipalities of the entire province.

Besides the system they developed, they have also a very tempting reward to those who paid in advance, having 20% discount to those who paid its whole year tax in advance, while 10% discount will be given to those who promptly pay quarterly.

The success of the program will not be realized without the effort of the Provincial Treasurer, Mr. Alvin Elorde and the big support of the honorable Gov. Eddiebong G. Plaza.

This is the second time that the provincial government received such award consecutively. And there will be a chance that for 2013 result, the province of Agusan del Sur will be awarded again since according to the report of the Provincial Treasury, as of October 2013, the tax collection is about 98% already. 

Not less than 1 million pesos worth of properties and goods were turned into ash, when one of the biggest grocery stores in Bayugan City caught by fire last December 21.

William Marketing Store was devoured by fire at around 11:45 a.m. last Saturday according to SFO3 Eduardo Jumamoy of Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) of Bayugan City. The fire was confined at 2:20 a.m. and total fire out at around 5 in the morning.

The BFP team had a hard time to extinguish the fire because of the products that the store sell like paints, thinners, liquors, etc.

According to the initial investigation of FO3 Ernesto Calumpag, the fire started at the ground floor specifically at the hardware display section of the store. But the cause of fire is under investigation yet.

Fortunately, the family members and the storekeepers living in that store were all safe and none of them were injured. And also that, no other establishments were caught by fire because of the firewall of the building.

According SFO3 Jumamoy, they saw empty shells of fire extinguishers and they suspected that before the people leave the building, they tried to stop the fire using the fire extinguishers.

The incident was raised to 2nd alarm were BFP of municipalities of Esperanza, Sibagat, Prosperidad and the Search and Rescue Agusan del Sur (SARAS) of the province immediately responded to the area.

Doubts