As Severe Tropical Storm "Paeng" (International Code Name: Nalgae) was whipping several regions of the country with all its might of strong winds and heavy rains the past two days, netizens were battered in the social media space with squabbles.

Hours before "Paeng" was forecast to make landfall, Facebook newsfeeds were teeming with dissent from the high number of fatalities due to the floods, flash floods landslides in Mindanao, especially the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Some took to social media about the lack of advisories and national government statements. Others rue the slow calamity response by government agencies. Many were crying for urgent help.

FB user Paspas Balita posted on Saturday morning: "We deserve the same attention and help!! that the Luzon, Visayas get when they are in a state of calamity. Ba't ang tahimik pag kami naman ang nakaka experience (Why are they silent now that we are the ones affected). MINDANAO NEEDS HELP."

Proudly Filipino, another FB user, posted on Saturday morning: "A lot of unexpected things happened. Mindanao didn't expect this kind of tragedy to happen to the region, and the help that they expected to come fast has been delayed. The focus was not on the region, even though Mindanao was the most affected one of the three main regions of the Philippines."

A journalist based in Zamboanga City, where 21 villages were hit by floods and flashfloods, and displaced thousands of families, wrote in the vernacular: We don't need your faces on Facebook, we need to see your faces on the field helping the affected families."

A former broadcaster posted on FB: "Help Mindanao. It looks like only we from Mindanao will help each other. It is not even reported in the Philippines what is happening here in Mindanao that almost 100 hundred people are dying due to incessant rains, flooding, and landslides. Fight friends. Let's work hard."

Some traded barbs on the issue of an information agency's seeming inadequacy but were parried by an official with alleged "arrogance." A case of "she said, he said" doesn't address the issue at all.

She said: "Is this true? I know it shouldn't be like this because we've been focusing on all the calamities for 6 years. We made sure that everyone would prepare and we report what is happening on the ground. Honestly, I don't see any men on the ground. We need to see the movement down there while there is a typhoon."