Westmincom brushes aside sabotage as cause of Mindanao power outage

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 27): Westmincom brushes aside sabotage as cause of Mindanao power outage

The Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) has brushed aside speculations that sabotage was the cause of Thursday’s power outage that hit Mindanao.

Westmincom information officer Capt. Maria Rowena Muyuela disclosed they have coordinated with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) and “we were informed that it was a technical problem on power generation.”

Mindanao was plunged into darkness around 3:53 a.m. Thursday due to transmission lines “disturbance” causing speculations that sabotage was the cause of the power outage.

“It is not a security breach, hence, we should not be alarmed nor believed in speculations of sabotage,” Muyuela said.

NGCP spokesperson Atty. Cynthia Alabanza said that power has been restored in several areas as of 9:30 a.m. but they have yet to determine the cause of the power outage and “is working to restore the power transmission service to all power customers in Mindanao.”

The transmission service is restored in the following areas: Davao City; General Santos City; Zamboanga City; Pagadian City; Cagayan de Oro City; and, parts of Misamis Oriental.

Albanza said they are monitoring the situation in Mindanao while efforts continue to restore electricity in affected cities and provinces.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=620572