Friday, January 15, 2016

NGCP transmission tower bombed but not toppled in North Cotabato

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 15): NGCP transmission tower bombed but not toppled in North Cotabato

Unidentified men bombed another transmission tower of the National Grid Corporation (NGCP) in Aleosan, North Cotabato Thursday night but the steel tower was not toppled, police said.

The two improvised explosive devices that went off at 11:58 p.m. damaged two feet of NGCP Tower No. 63, according to Senior Inspector Jun J. Napat, Aleosan town police chief.

“The tower remained standing, the blasts only damaged two of its four feet,” Napat said.

“The incident also did not trigger outage,” he added.

No one has claimed responsibility in the bomb attack in Purok 4, Barangay Pagangan, Aleosan, North Cotabato, the first bomb attack in the province.

At least 16 NGCP towers were bombed in North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in 2015, according to Melfrance Bambi Capulong, NGCP spokesperson for Southern Philippines.

“Repair will start as soon as area is secured,” Capulong said of the first bombing incident against NGCP facilities in Mindanao.

Napat said the IED was fashioned from 60 or 80 mm mortars with mobile phone as trigger mechanism. Another IED was found near the damaged tower.

"We are conducting pursuit operations, we are following up a lead," Napat said.

In a statement, NGCP said the bombings only serve to increase the burden of the public, which must suffer through service interruptions when towers are bombed.

NGCP is appealing to the public, local and national government, PNP and AFP to help monitor the safety of the towers so that transmission services remain uninterrupted.

The company also appeals to local community leaders to help identify the perpetrators of the bombings, and to negotiate with uncooperative landowners, to prevent longer power interruptions.

Before Thursday night’s bombing, an improvised bomb also exploded in Purok Mirasol, Barangay Polomoguen, Midsayap, North Cotabato, according to Supt. Gilbert Tuzon, Midsayap town police chief.

Tuzon said the blast occurred at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday night but nobody was hurt since the area was isolated from civilian communities.

The blast came while Midsayap is in the thick of preparations for its patronal fiesta on Sunday.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=846949

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