Police and military authorities in North
Cotabato are eyeing two groups believed to be behind the toppling
of a steel tower of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP)
Thursday night, official said Saturday.
Supt. Alexander Tagum, North Cotabato police chief, said the
bombing of NGCP Tower No. 68 in Barangay Pagangan, Aleosan, North
Cotabato could be the handiwork of outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic
Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and extortion gangs.
A series of arrests were carried out by the police and
military in North Cotabato that dismantled a
crime syndicate with the arrest of suspected bombers.
The two groups were suspected of mulcting the power
distribution firm.
Covert and overt operations continue to neutralize the
group, police and military leaders said.
Following a 15-hour power interruption caused by the
bombing, electricity was back in Cotabato Light and Power Company franchise
area and nearby provinces Friday through an alternate source.
An NGCP advisory issued at 12:30 p.m. Friday said: "At
12 noon, NGCP energized the Tacurong-Sultan Kudarat 69kV line to serve as
alternate route of the bombed Kibawe-Sultan Kudarat 138kV line to serve
Cotabato Light, Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) and Maguindanao Electric
Cooperative (Magelco)."
It added: "Reports show that the alternate line failed
to energize this (Friday) morning due to vegetation hanging on the lines
causing a permanent fault. NGCP has since cleared the vegetation. NGCP
continues to assess the damages of the bombed tower along the Kibawe-Sultan
Kudarat line."
The 9:28 p.m. Thursday attack in Aleosan caused a 15-hour
blackout in dozens of towns in the adjoining North Cotabato and Maguindanao
provinces and in all of the 37 barangays in Cotabato City.
Affected areas were six towns in North Cotabato, the whole
of Maguindanao and Cotabato
City
Melfrance Bambi Capulong, speaking for the NGCP Southern
Mindanao, said today's scheduled preventive maintenance of Kabacan-Sultan
Kudarat sub station was cancelled.
Capulong said the schedule was to clear trees and branches
along the power lines and would have shut off power from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Saturday. "But due to the bombing incident, NGCP field workers will attend
to the toppled tower," she said.
She said NGCP is doing its best to prevent similar incident
in the future and improve power distribution activities to better serve its
clients.
Despite the restored direct power from NGCP, Cotabato Light
communications officer Arlene Hepiga said a 2-3 hours power rotational brownout
has to be implemented in its franchise area.
She said the power provided by the Tacurong substation is
still not enough to energized all areas of the Cotabato Light franchise which
includes the city and parts of Sultan Kudarat and Datu Odin Sinsuat, both in
Maguindanao.
Thursday night’s bombing of NGCP tower was the sixth since
January.
Mayor Vicente Suropia of Aleosan has called on all village
officials and the residents to help secure NGCP transmission lines.
He said if this problem continues, it has impact on the
town's economy and peace and order.
Suropia urged his constituents to report immediately to
authorities any suspicious men roaming near transmission towers to prevent
similar incidents in the future.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=837239
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